X-Heart Pre-Cure
by Opt281
Summary: Tamaki and Shima are two girls who couldn't be more different. Their adventure, along with their families, and the new friends they have yet to meet. It all begins when something that is not a star falls from the sky...
1. A Wish That Wasn't On A Falling Star!

From the beginning, there was more than one ending.

The king stood on a beach, wearing a crown of silver and robes of dark water. A magistrate stood next to him, looking entirely like a human in a long black coat, and apparently serving only to make indisputable the gigantic stature of the ruler, who was several times taller and proportioned to match.

The queen he faced was possessed of the same immense scale, and likewise dwarfed the magistrate who accompanied her. Her golden crown sat atop a veil of morning mist, and she wore a gown of churning river foam.

The two monarchs stood, watching each other warily, as the magistrates read the contents of the treaty. When the reading was complete, each nodded agreement then stepped forward and shook hands. Even for a giant, her grip was firm and strong. Had he the inclination, he could have accepted her as an equal.

That was not the ending he chose.

The king pulled his free hand from his robes, and with it the dagger that he plunged into her breast. Blood like a sunlit waterfall spilled from the wound and trickled from the corner of her mouth, and the king smiled... a cold, predatory expression.

He coughed up blood, the darkness of a night with no moon. Her smile resembled his own, as did the blade now embedded in his own chest.

That was the ending they chose, but it was never the only ending.

* * *

Even as two kingdoms crumbled, the myriad worlds continued to turn.

Clouds gathered in the sky, as they always had. Rain fell from those clouds onto the ground, as it always had. Water on the ground gathered into streams, rivers, and lakes, as it always had. Those rivers flowed into the ocean, as they always had. And the ocean returned the water to the sky.

There had always been more things in the sky than just clouds, of course. Birds and planes. The Sun, the Moon, and the stars. Sometimes stars would fall. Sometimes things that were not stars would also fall. On this particular day, not long from now, a certain person looking up might have seen something that was not a star falling from the sky.

The thing that was not a falling star could be considered fortunate. Falling stars are made of stone, and they shine because they're on fire. Stars that do not fall can burn for billions of years, but falling stars burn up in seconds. To be a falling star must be a very sad thing.

The thing that was not a falling star was glowing brightly enough to be one, warmly and brilliantly pink. Though he came from the sea, he was not thinking that he was following in the path of water, which as we know moves from the sea to the sky and back to the sea again. He was not thinking of how sad it would be to be a falling star, or how fortunate he was to not be one. No, he was thinking about the same thing that he was screaming, which was:

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"

* * *

_X-Heart PreCure!_

_Episode 1: A Wish That Wasn't On A Falling Star! We Are Pretty Cure?_

* * *

It was a day like any other. The sun shone in the blue sky over a bustling seaside town. A dearth of clouds promised a day free from rain, and the trees were already thick with green leaves where there had been only buds a week or two before. Adults worked. Children attended school-

This moment is interupted by the ringing of a bell.

Children now departed school, for the most part. There were some few that remained behind, involved in club activities or other things, and for the present those are of greater importance, so we do not observe the hazel-eyed brunette who is already passing through the gates of the Seaside Girls Jr. Academy at an energetic dash. The school's halls at this very moment are filled with motion, so we may only very briefly take note of the girl with her half-moon glasses and her violet braids tied together in an assymetrical knot, and the girl with the thick glasses and bobbed blue hair who waves to her in passing before we are drawn away through the sea of faces.

At the end of a hallway and down a flight of stairs is the entrance to a gymnasium. Within, we encounter the striking gaze of a pair of pink eyes, which are set into a starkly beautiful face framed by straight, black hair that should run over her shoulders and down her back, and would give her the impression of a perfect yamato nadesico, if she were not wearing a basketball jersey instead of a kimono, and if her hair was not at this moment drawn back in a ponytail.

She looks straight ahead with the focus of a warrior, and then she moves, swiftly darting towards the girl with the ball, feinting to the left, then stealing right along with the ball. There is nothing extraordinary about the height of her jump or the speed of her shot, and when the ball goes through the hoop exactly in accordance with her wishes, that is something anyone could do with sufficient practice.

Her opponent laughs. "I can never win against you, Suou-sempai!"

A stray hair jumped up from the dark-haired girl's scalp as if in reaction to her kohai's comment.

"Hina, how many points did you score just now?"

"Not enough."

"But it wasn't zero, right?"

"No, but-" Hina fell silent as the other girl's arm slid around her shoulder in a friendly embrace.

"No buts. No nevers. Work hard, and you can beat me. I'll work hard too. And then we'll work together and totally defeat Skyline! We'll take Koshien by storm! That's a Suou Tamaki guarantee!"

"Sempai..."

"How's that, Hina? Do you feel charged full of basketball power?"

"Sempai, Koshien is baseball."

"It is? Ahahahahaha, it is!"

The other members of the basketball club just shook their heads.

* * *

A while later, in the planetarium that took up much of the Academy's top floor, a bespectacled blue-haired girl sat by herself in the dark. The lights projected inside the dome showed the exact positions of the stars, not as they were right now or would be this night, but as they would be in the near future.

Deneb. Altair. Vega. She named them to herself as she looked from one to the next. In the summer, they would be visible straight overhead, but this projection displayed them more to the West. She sighed. This night sky was still several months away, as was the meeting that would come with it.

A door opened, allowing light from the hallway to flood the room. The girl turned to look at the sillouette of a girl with assymetric knotted braids in the doorway.

"Shima? I hope I'm not disturbing you."

Shima shook her head, even though the other girl probably couldn't make it out in the dark.

"Not particularly. I've got this sky memorized already."

"This one again? Sometimes I suspect you just come up here to have an excuse to brood in the dark."

A soft giggle floated towards the doorway. "Maybe I do. Is it time to go home already?"

"It's not that late yet, but there's a problem with the budget and I can already tell that I'm going to be late. There's no reason that you should wait for me."

"You just don't want me to sit in the dark by myself."

"That too. If you'd find just one or two other girls to be in your Astronomy Club, I'm sure I could pull some strings for you."

"I'll find someone sometime, Koishi. And I promise to go home at a reasonable time."

"Thanks, Shima."

The door closed again, leaving Yagami Shima alone with her stars.

* * *

Following a couple hours of basketball practice, Suou Tamaki joined the slow trickle of students leaving the school as the various clubs ended their daily activities each at their own pace. Once again wearing the academy's white and violet striped sailor uniform, with her hair let down as it usually was when she wasn't doing sports, she parted with her teammates at the gate and began the long walk down the hill towards her home.

Smiling and humming to herself as she walked the tree-lined path, a single stray hair twitched in the air as if it knew something she didn't. Craned upward, as if it heard something she didn't. Had it the capacity for sight, it would have seen something that was not a falling star.

"-aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-"

Presently, she heard it too, and if she'd looked upward instead of around and behind her, she would have seen it for herself. Perhaps even in time to dodge.

"-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-OOF!"

Struck full in the face by something that was far too plush and soft to be a falling star, she fell backwards onto her rear as the projectile ricocheted off of her and rolled to a stop nearby.

"Ow... what just hit me?"

She sat up and rubbed her bottom. A bright red stuffed animal lay upside against the roots of the closest tree. Its stubby white limbs were shaking in the slightest way, and for some reason its eyes were closed. In the middle of its forehead, it had a white heart with an X-mark crossed through it.

"There's no way it was this, right?"

"Ah... I thought I was gonna die-ton! My whole life flashed before my eyes-ton!"

"It talked! The stuffed animal talked!"

"I'm not a stuffed animal-ton! I'm a fairy from the Field of Currents-ton!"

"A fairy, huh?" The girl moved closer to get a better look at the little creature, who rolled over and stood up on his stubby legs. "I guess you are kind of cute-"

"I am not cute-ton! I'm a manly lanternfish warrior- HOLD IT-ton! I haven't got time for this-ton! I need to find Tun and search for the legendary warriors, Pretty Cure-ton!"

"The legendary warriors, Pretty Cure? I've never heard of anyone like that." Her stray hair twitched inquisitively, but the little fairy fell to his knees. Or what might have been his knees, if his legs weren't so short. "What's wrong?"

"How am I ever going to find the legendary warriors, Pretty Cure, if a human from the Field of Rains has never heard of them-ton? It's hopeless-ton!"

"It's not hopeless!" Struck by the force of her sudden declaration, the fairy rolled backwards a couple of times into a sitting position. "You've already come this far, so your progress isn't zero! As long as your progress isn't zero, you can definitely succeed! That's a Suou Tamaki guarantee!"

"So you know how to find the legendary warriors-ton?"

"Not a clue!"

"Then what good is your guarantee-ton?!"

"It's full of positive energy! Ahahahaha!" She paused and scratched head for a moment. "I guess I should help you look, though. I did guarantee it, and I've never met a legendary warrior before."

"It might be dangerous-ton. Monsters from the Field of Rivers are probably already looking for me-ton!"

"Then I'll hide you in my bookbag!" She lifted up the bag's flap. The fairy looked at her skeptically, but jumped in anyway. "Where do you wanna look first?"

"That way-ton!" The fairy had to lean out of her bag to point with his stubby arm. "Tun was falling in that direction when we got separated-ton!"

"Okay! Off to find Tun-san, then! Come to think of it, what's your name?"

"Oops-ton! With all this excitement, I forgot to introduce myself-ton! My name is Ton!"

"I'm Suou Tamaki! Pleased to meetcha, Ton!"

Then the girl took off at a dash, leaving her new friend to fare how he might within her wildly bouncing bookbag.

* * *

On a quiet residential street further down the hill, Shima walked quietly on her way home. The regularly spaced trees that lined the road nearer the school had given way to an irregular smattering of trees, hedges, and gardens, as best suited the tastes of the various owners. A cobblestone retaining wall ran along the sidewalk on one side of the road, and not far from here she would be going uphill again.

Walking alone left her mind free to wander, and she wished for a moment that she could see the stars above... then took it back because that would mean walking home after dark. It wasn't as if the clear blue sky wasn't pleasant in its own way. In fact, just now a falling star was whistling across the sky towards her.

"But falling stars don't whistle," she thought out loud. "Not unless they're large enough to hit the ground, and then it should be quite a bit louder. It must be close if I can hear it though, and it looks like it's getting closer. The chances that it could be heading right at me probably aren't entirely astronomical-"

She dove out of the way just in time to avoid being hit by something that was certainly not a falling star, at the same time somehow clipping the cobblestone wall hard enough that her glasses were knocked off of her face.

Shima fell to her knees and began to grope about, essentially blind.

"My glasses... where are my glasses?"

"Here they are-tun."

Taking her glasses from the unknown voice, Shima put them on and found herself looking at a pudgy white stuffed animal with a blue mark on its forehead shaped like a wheel. It had less distinctive blue markings on its arms and its legs... and also on what looked to be its fins.

She blinked a couple of times, then took her glasses off and wiped them. The strange creature remained.

"You're definitely not a falling star, right?"

The creature shook its head. "I'm not anything so sad as that-tun! I'm Tun, a fairy from the Field of Currents-tun!"

"Field of Currents? Fairy? I can't even think of where to start dealing with- Wait, falling stars are beautiful! Why did you call them sad?"

"Just because they're beautiful doesn't mean they're happy-tun. Stars that do not fall can burn for billions of years, but falling stars burn up in seconds-tun. Doesn't that sound so very sad-tun?"

"It does... I never thought about it like that before."

"I think I'm very fortunate to not be a falling star-tun. Well now... What's your name-tun?"

"Me? Yagami Shima."

"Shima-chan, even though we've known each other a very short time, I have to go now-tun."

"I see..." Shima nodded and adjusted her glasses. "It's to be expected that a fairy from another world would want to return home as quickly as possible."

"That's a reasonable expectation, but I can't go home yet-tun. I need to find the legendary warriors, Pretty Cure-tun! If the legendary warriors don't have the Cure Lodestones, they won't be able to stop the monsters from the Field of Rivers from destroying this world like they did my home-tun!"

"Legendary warriors? Cure Lodestones? Monsters? Maybe I should call the police? No, this is too crazy! Who would believe such a thing?"

As if in answer to Shima's question, a beautiful black-haired girl wearing the uniform of her school turned around the corner at a sprint and suddenly was running directly towards Shima. Caught completely off guard, and already kneeling on the ground to speak to the little fairy, Shima could only cry out and grab Tun in a protective hug and brace for impact.

"Look out!"

* * *

If not for Tamaki's meteoric encounter with Ton earlier, breaking around a street corner at top speed and suddenly being in danger of trampling somebody would have easily been the biggest surprise of the day, but in the short moment before the imminent collision she still managed to leap and do a handspring that carried her over the top of the other girl with not a hair on her head harmed. Skidding to a stop over a few more paces, Tamaki spread her arms victoriously.

"Safe!"

"OUT! What were you thinking throwing me up in the air like that-ton? That was the second time today I thought I was gonna die-ton!"

Tamaki looked back to see her bookbag hanging from a tree branch with an irate fairy hanging out of it.

"Oh, it's Ton-sama-tun!"

"Tun, you're okay-ton!"

"Suou Tamaki with another fairy... What the heck is going on?!"

* * *

A couple of minutes later, the girls and the fairies conferred while sitting down in a nearby bus shelter.

"So the two of you are both from the Field of Currents, which was destroyed by monsters, and if you don't find the legendary warriors, Pretty Cure, the same thing is going to happen to Earth?"

"That's right-ton." "Yes, that's it-tun."

"And I promised to help Ton, so now I'm involved with it too."

"Shut up, Suou-san. I still haven't forgiven you for running me over."

"I said I'm sorry about that... Come to think of it, I don't know your name. Have we met?"

"Yagami Shima! We're in the same class!"

"We are? I guess we are! Ahahahaha! Sorry about that, Shima-chan!"

"Whatever." Shima turned back to the fairies. "Anyhow, if I leave the two of you to her, there's no telling what kind of trouble you'll get into. Do you have any plan for how you'll find the legendary warriors? Like an address or a photo or something?"

"Address-tun? Photo-tun?"

"There isn't anything like those in the Field of Currents-ton. But when we bring them close to the legendary warriors, the Cure Lodestones will react-ton!"

"Cure Lodestones?"

Ton and Tun nodded, each putting their hands forward with what looked to be a matched pair of compasses with pink heart-shaped needles, housed within an ornate clasped case like an old pocketwatch, except that the casing was pink for one and blue for the other, giving an impression more like a toy than an antique artifact. The needles were spinning slowly in opposite directions.

As Tamaki watched the needles spin, her stray hair started to drift in circles as well. "So the legendary warriors are moving in circles around us now?"

"No! They just aren't close to us-ton! When the legendary warriors are near the Cure Lodestones, something miraculous will happen-ton!"

"That will never happen!"

The four of them were interrupted by the deep voice of a creature floating in midair. It was a monster with the body of a muscular man, but the hooves and head of a horse. Its mane seemed to be made of flowing water, and its eyes were black where the whites should be.

"It's the enemy-ton! Run away while I hold him off-ton!"

Ton sprang at the man-horse with a high-pitched kiai, apparently unfazed by his enemy's imposing appearance. The monster responded with a backhand slap that sent him flying like a jet-powered home run baseball, high into the air and far away, then turned his gaze back to the two girls.

"I am Taeyn, centurion of the Field of Rivers and seneschal of the Island Palace! You humans! Hand over the Cure Lodestones and those denizens of the Field of Currents, and I promise that you may leave unharmed! Otherwise, you will bear the full force of my hatred!"

"No way!" "Not happening!"

The two girls responded as one.

"If I hand them over to you, I'd be going back on a Tamaki-chan guarantee!"

"I didn't make any guarantees, but you look like the kind of guy who thinks nothing of breaking promises!"

On the bench in front of them, the Cure Lodestones opened up and started to glow. Ringing in a soft harmony like a pair of tiny bells, they began to float in the air as the spinning of the needles slowed and came to a stop, pointing directly at Tamaki and Shima.

"Tamaki-chan! Shima-chan! You are the legendary warriors-tun!"

"We are? Shima-chan, what do we do now?"

"Why are you asking me? I've never been in a fight in my life!"

"Use the Cure Lodestones-tun! If you hold them in your hands and say the magic words, a miracle will occur-tun!"

"There will be no miracles!" Taeyn shouted, gathering a ball of dark energy in his hands and flinging it at the three. "Each and every one of you, DIE!"

The two girls grabbed the Cure Lodestones out of the air and held them in front of their chests. The words that needed to be said slipped into their minds as if they'd been there all along.

"PreCure Cross My Heart!" "PreCure Cross My Heart!"

* * *

The world around them vanished. Their bodies now floated in the air between a softly glowing sea and a beautiful starlit sky. Two large banners, pink for Tamaki and blue for Shima, each emblazoned with a golden heart crossed underneath by a golden X-mark, formed out of the wind and the sea spray, and wound around their bodies, hiding their clothing and everything below their necks from view.

The banners rippled and reformed, becoming fanciful knee-length dresses in pink and blue, replete with ribbons and frills. Elbow length gloves and tall boots formed around their hands and feet, and leathery black belts and bandoliers, with golden buckles all shaped in the same crossed-heart emblem, wrapped around their waists and crossed their chests.

Tamaki's black hair washed pink and shortened back to the nape of her neck, except for a small handful of strands that wound themselves into thin pink braids and tied together in a bow at the top of her head, secured in place by the tiara that appeared.

At the same time, Shima's glasses vanished and her hair grew longer, washing blonde as it reached down to her back and gathered into a ponytail, cinched by a heart-shaped ornament that sprang into being for that purpose.

The real world reappeared exactly as they had left it, with the transformed girls posed back to back.

"Flying the flag of the whistling wind, Cure Breeze!"

"Flying the flag of the crashing waves, Cure Surf!"

"Joined together under the jolly roger of love, we will calm your hatred and steal your heart! Setting sail, Cross Heart Pretty Cure!"

* * *

Within the first moment after they transformed, Cure Surf reached out her hand and caught the ball of energy that Taeyn had thrown at them. She tightened her grip and it shattered into dust.

"I feel strange..." She blinked. "And I can see with my peripheral vision! What's going on?"

"Your glasses are gone!" Cure Breeze gaped and pointed. "It's like you're a completely different person!"

Cure Surf's hands flew to her face, where her glasses very much were not. "I don't have my glasses and I can see..." She turned her gaze to Breeze. "Your hair! It's short!"

Cure Breeze touched the back of her head, discovering by touch the ends of her hair that was now much shorter than it should be. She wobbled on her feet and fell kneeling on the ground.

"My life is over!"

* * *

"Next time!"

"Next time? Shima, shouldn't our theme song be playing right now?"

"Tamaki, you do realize we're not on TV?"

"We're not? Ahahahaha, of course we're not! Wink!"

"Wink? Why would you say that out loud?"

"No worries! Nobody's listening to this part anyway! They're too busy gaping at the amazing footage from next week's episode!"

"Didn't I just tell you we're not on TV?!"

"Next time, X-Heart PreCure: I just can't do this! Pretty Cure disbands?!"

"How can you announce that so cheerfully?! Are you even listening to yourself?"

"Ahahahaha! Nobody listens to this part! Why, what'd I say?"

"I'm sorry... I just can't do this."


	2. I Just Can't Do This!

"Suou Tamaki, 14 years old, in 2nd year class 1 at Seaside Girls Jr. Academy. Things I like: Basketball. I mean, it's not like that's the only thing I like, but it's my number one favorite, y'know? Things I don't like: spinach, getting clocked in the face, and monsters! I'm an ordinary girl! Why should I have to fight monsters! And just look at what it did to my hair! Do you have any idea how many years it took to grow it that long?"

"Tamaki! You're leaving out someone very important-ton!"

"What? Oh, right. I also met another girl who is in the same situation I am, Yagami Shima. I guess we're in the same class? We suddenly became the legendary warriors Pretty Cure together, so I hope we can get along..."

_X-Heart PreCure!_

* * *

_Episode 2: I Just Can't Do This! Pretty Cure Disbands?!_

* * *

"I don't have my glasses and I can see- Your hair! It's short!"

Cure Breeze touched the back of her head, discovering by touch the ends of her hair that was now much shorter than it should be. She wobbled on her feet and fell kneeling on the ground.

"My life is over!"

"Is that so? You have nothing left to live for? In that case, you should give up this useless resistance and hand over the Cure Lodestones!"

Taeyn floated to the ground and strode towards them, his hooves cracking the pavement where he walked.

"No, I'll fight." Cure Breeze stood up. "My hair will grow back. It is already growing back! And if we don't take this seriously, we'd be letting down Ton and Tun, who came from another world just to meet us! I've already taken the first step, so I can definitely rise to the challenge! That's a Cure Breeze guarantee!"

"What of your guarantee?! What of your miracle?! I spit on them both! If you won't cooperate, then I'll take what I want by force!"

The horse-headed monster charged at the group, bellowing hatred and fury. The transformed girls leapt out of the way...

High into the air.

"What's going on?!" "How did we get up here?!"

"This is probably the power of the legendary warriors-tun." Tun responded from Surf's back, having at some point grabbed hold of her bandolier.

"Probably? What else could it be?"

"And how are we supposed to get down? If we fall from this high, we'll be street pizza for sure!"

"I don't really know that much about the legend-tun. I'm sure it'll work out in the end-tun!"

The monster below stood up in the crater that had been a bus shelter and leapt into the air after them, clearly intent on punching a hole in Cure Surf.

"Leave me alone! I don't want to fight!"

Surf screamed, closed her eyes, and held her hands out in front of her. Taeyn didn't slow down or stop, but when he punched his fist into her outstretched palms, she grabbed his arm without thinking and spun in the air, throwing him forcefully at the ground.

"What? What did I just do?" "Look out!"

In her confusion, Cure Surf failed to notice that in throwing the man-horse away from herself, she'd also thrown herself directly at Cure Breeze. The two collided in the air and fell to the ground in complete disorder. When the dust settled a moment later, they found themselves at the center of an crater impacted into the street.

"Are you okay-tun?"

"Okay? I'm surprised we're not dead!"

"This hero stuff is more painful than I'd imagined," Cure Breeze agreed as she got back up off the ground. "Ready for another round?"

"Another round? I'm ready to run away! Why should we have anything to do with that monster?"

Breeze shrugged. "Well, we've come this far..." Without waiting for an answer, she vaulted down the street, towards the other crater some 100 meters distant that Taeyn had already stepped to the rim of. She pulled back her arm for a punch, but before her punch could connect, the man-horse snapped a straight kick into her gut that launched her back the way she'd come, colliding with Cure Surf and blasting out yet another asphalt crater around the pair.

Slowly and with obvious difficulty, Breeze got back on her feet. With her stray hair sticking straight up in the air, she shouted her defiance.

"I... CAN STILL... STAND! And I won't let you hurt my new friends!"

Taeyn snorted, sounding for the moment entirely like a horse. "I'll give you fools credit for being annoying. I'll let you go for now, but next time we meet will be the end of this!"

A dark portal opened underneath him, and he vanished into it, leaving only a puddle of filthy water behind. All of the destruction caused by the battle disappeared as well... within moments, the craters in the street and the obliterated bus shelter were back to normal as if nothing had happened.

* * *

"Why are you idiots following me?"

"I have to stay with the legendary warriors-tun. And you dropped your Cure Lodestone-tun."

"I didn't drop it! I threw it away!" Shima spun and glared at Tamaki. "And you! Don't tell me you suddenly want to be friends when you didn't even realize that we see each other in class every day!"

"Well, in that case... uh... at least my hair and your glasses came back? That would have been tough to explain! Ahahaha!"

"Do you think I wear glasses this thick because I want to?! Maybe you haven't noticed, but I'm practically blind without them!"

"Ehe... I really am an idiot. Sorry about that."

Shima sighed. "Look, I understand that you don't mean anything by it. It's just that these glasses are the only thing most people notice about- Why am I telling you this? Don't you have anything better to do than follow me home?"

"Kind of? Last time we saw Ton, he was flying this direction, and I'd feel bad if he got lost out here with nobody to help him."

"I'm worried too-tun."

Shima paused. It was actually a good reason.

"I suppose... I could help you look. It's not like I'm going to keep doing Pretty Cure stuff, but it wouldn't be too inconvenient if we find him near my home. And I'm sure neither of you know the area like I do."

"I believe in you-tun! You're actually a very kind girl-tun!"

"...let's just get this over with."

* * *

After more than an hour of searching, the girls rested at the base of a stone staircase. After looking to make sure nobody was coming, Shima opened her bookbag and addressed the fairy inside directly.

"Tun, are you sure it was this direction? There's virtually nowhere to left to look here except the inn."

"I can't see it from here, but I remember clearly that Ton-sama was flying in the direction of a large Japanese-style building on this hill-tun."

Shima's face turned a shade more pale. "Just what I was afraid of..."

"If we went to the entrance and asked to look around... I guess there's no way something like that would work, right?"

"Actually, we won't have that kind of problem at all. It's just... under the circumstances... I was really hoping it would be anywhere else but there."

Independent of the rest of her head, Tamaki's stray hair perked up. "You mean the young madame is your childhood rival, and she'll only agree to let us search the place after you perform some humiliating punishment game?"

"Why would you jump to that kind of conclusion?!"

"Then is the young master your childhood friend who is going to demand your hand in marriage?"

"That scenario is even more unreasonable than the first one! And in any case, there aren't any weird people living there!"

"What sort of people are there-tun?"

Shima made a troubled expression, as if trying to think of an answer to a difficult question. But before she could answer, someone called out to her from behind.

"**Oh! Isn't that you, Shima?**"

"Whoa, huge!"

Tamaki, having been facing Shima, needed only turn her gaze a little to see a bald, muscular giant in a dark violet kimono carrying a pair of cheese wheels, one on each shoulder, each a meter round and nearly half a meter thick. The ripeness of the cheese rapidly became apparent from the smell as he approached.

Shima quickly turned an about face while closing her bookbag and hiding it behind her back.

"Uncle! How unusual, to see you this far from the inn!"

Light glinted off the giant's bifocals as he laughed. "**Haha! A certain quantity of our provisions went missing, so someone was needed to fetch more! Wouldn't it be a waste of these magnificent muscles if I didn't take care of it myself?**" He paused, leaning forward slightly to look at Tamaki. "**But never mind that. Are you finally having a friend over? Won't you introduce us?**"

Sweat glistened on Shima's forehead, but she shifted her bookbag into one hand, which she still held behind her back while she made the proper gestures with her free hand.

"Well... Uncle, it's not as if I'm having her over, but this is my classmate, Suou Tamaki. I've been helping her look for something that might have been lost in this area. Tamaki, this is my uncle, Kagura Ranichirou, who is the young master of the Nanohanasou."

Tamaki bowed deeply, looking for just a moment like a true yamato nadesico. "I'm pleased to make your acquaintance, sir!"

The giant returned the bow as much as he could without unbalancing his cheese. "**The pleasure is ours, young lady. Now, if I may leave our Shima in your care, there are people waiting on these provisions.**"

"Leave it to me!"

The giant laughed again, and ascended the steps. A few moments later, he was out of sight. Only the overpowering odor of the cheese remained.

"Thank goodness that's over!" Shima let out a sigh of relief. "I can't imagine trying to explain this Pretty Cure business to my family!"

"Really? I think if I told my parents about becoming a legendary hero, they'd-" Tamaki paused. "That would be a really bad idea, wouldn't it?"

A soft gurgling sound came from Shima's bag.

"Oh my... Pardon me-tun! This smell just reminded me that I haven't eaten all day-tun."

The two girls glanced at each other, as if they both suddenly had the same notion.

"Tun, weren't you with Ton all day before you got separated? He hasn't eaten either?"

"Yes, we were together until we came here-tun. He must be very hungry by now-tun."

"And after he flew in this direction, your inn's food went missing. I'll bet he's hiding out and stuffing himself right now!"

"And if he is, he'll never in a hundred years find a hiding spot I don't know about! To think that I was almost worried about him!"

* * *

Back where the battle had occurred, though no evidence of such yet remained, a small puddle of dirty water grew larger for no obvious reason. A moment later, the head of a horse broke the surface, and rose straight out of the puddle followed by the body of a man with the hooves of a horse.

"So they've run away, have they? Those so called legendary warriors must not be quite as stupid as they look."

Taeyn idly polished a glossy black disk in his hands and continued talking to himself as he levitated into the air and looked around.

"So... Pretty Cure! What sort of place have you chosen for your last stand?"

* * *

"You live _here_?"

Upon reaching the top of the stone steps, Tamaki had to stop and stare. She'd known that the Nanohanasou was an inn, but was nonetheless very impressed to see the building, which was three stories tall in the traditional Japanese architectural style with a ceramic tile roof. The grounds were well-kept and elegantly landscaped, and it gave every impression of being a quiet and peaceful inn.

"We're not here to gawk. Come on."

To Tamaki's dismay, they did not go inside. Instead, Shima led her around the back of the inn and to the rear of an isolated storage shed, where they found an overturned cardboard box moving by itself and making suspicious sounds. Shima lifted the box and flung it aside, revealing the red and white fairy, who was enthusiastically laying into a pile of cheese and cabbages with the class of decorum normally attributed to starving dogs.

"So this is where you were!"

"Ah? Tamaki... Shima... and even Tun? Fancy meeting you here-ton!"

"You little red rogue! Do you have any idea how much trouble you've caused?"

"Well... that is... There's a deeply meaningful explanation for this-ton!" Ton suddenly put his hands over his mouth, but was unable to suppress a loud belch.

"To think that Ton-sama was doing this sort of thing-tun..." Tun sniffled, and tears ran down her face. "And we were all so worried about you-tun..."

"Tun, I..." Ton paused, obviously rethinking whatever he had been about to say. He turned towards the three and knelt to the ground. "Please forgive me!"

"You will not be forgiven!"

The four turned immediately to face the source of this declaration, and found themselves once more face to horse face with Taeyn, who held up a fist-sized black disc embossed with a pointy-toothed grimace.

"You Pretty Cures may be resilient, but this will be the end of you! Let's go, Kiraina!"

Taeyn threw the disc at the discarded cardboard box, where it stuck and sank into the surface of the object, which then twisted and grew into a humanoid form taller than the nearby shed. A gaping maw full of serrated teeth was the only indication that it even had a face, but it was clearly looking at the two girls and two fairies as it howled its birth-cry.

"KIRAINAAAAAAAA!"

Tamaki looked up at the monster's face with a nervous expression.

"This really looks like a tall order, but once we transform..." She paused. "Right?"

"Don't be a fool-ton! Only the legendary warriors would stand a chance against that thing-ton!"

"Shima and Tamaki are the legendary warriors-tun! After you left earlier, they made a miracle happen-tun!"

"Really-ton? Then what are you waiting for-ton? Use the power of miracles-ton!"

Three expectant faces turned toward Shima, who was shaking in terror as she backed slowly away from the monster.

"I- I just can't do this!"

"Shima-chan? What's wrong?"

"Tamaki, I can't fight that thing! I'm not fearless like you!"

"I'm not fearless. I'm actually really scared. I want to run away too, but I feel like I'd lose something important if I went back on my word. I'm going to fight as Pretty Cure, even if I have to do it by myself!"

Tamaki turned to face the Kiraina and held her Cure Lodestone out in front of her.

"PreCure Cross My Heart!"

Nothing happened.

"Huh? It worked last time..."

"It doesn't work like that-ton! The miracle will only happen when the hearts of the legendary warriors are united-ton!"

Taeyn snorted. "Is that so? How unfortunate... for you! But I can only call this situation ideal! Kiraina, get them!"

"Kiraina!"

The cardboard construct howled and advanced with a slow, awkward gait.

"Run away-ton! I'll hold him off-ton!"

"Like last time?"

Ton ignored Tamaki's comment and sprang at the Kiraina with an energetic shout... at which point the monster swung it's arm high overhead and swatted the fairy, spiking him into the dirt at Tamaki's feet.

"Exactly like last time."

"At least he didn't fly away-tun!"

Tamaki picked Ton up and tucked him under her arm, then backed up to where Shima was and grabbed her hand.

"New plan: We gather all our courage... and run!"

* * *

Pulled along by the hand of the more athletic Tamaki, Shima and the two fairies ran with her uphill through the woods behind the inn, but the ungainly and odd monster somehow always managed to remain in sight behind them.

"Tamaki! Tamaki, listen! This isn't going to work!"

"If you're saying we should split up, I won't have it! If we can't fight, we have to run away, and all of us escaping together is the absolute least I can accept! That's a Suou Tamaki guarantee!"

"No, that's not it! Tamaki, we can't go this way! Stop!"

Shima dug her heels into the ground, slowing Tamaki down just enough that she didn't lose her balance stopping when the ground abruptly dropped away before her feet.

"Whoa!"

"I was trying to tell you there's a cliff! We can't go this way!"

"Oh... uh... thanks."

"Such a treacherous place, this Field of Rains!" Taeyn called out triumphantly, hovering down from the sky just beyond the edge of the cliff. "I simply cannot imagine how you humans get by without the power of flight. Now, hand over the Cure Lodestones! Do that, and I'll have no more business with you!"

"KIRAINA!"

The cardboard enemy lurched closer, cutting them off from the way they'd come.

"This is bad-tun! What can we do now-tun?"

"This is my time to shine-ton! I'll protect everyone as a manly-gah!" Ton trailed off suddenly as Tamaki squeezed him forcefully under her arm.

"Knock that off before you hurt yourself. Didn't I tell you that we're all in this together?" She looked back at Shima, and held up her hand that still gripped Shima's tightly. "Shima, let's transform!"

"I'm scared... Tamaki, this isn't something I can handle!"

"If we're together, we can do it! As long as we can move forward at least that much, it's definitely not impossible! I guarantee it!"

Shima hesitated.

"Are you guaranteeing that as Suou Tamaki or as Cure Breeze?"

"As another scared girl. Friends?"

Shima forced a smile. "This might be the shortest friendship ever."

The dark-haired girl grinned back. "I'm fine with that if you are!"

"Let's do this, then!

"PreCure Cross My Heart!" "PreCure Cross My Heart!"

As it had the first time, the world around them seemed to vanish as the power of miracles embraced them, transforming the two ordinary girls into the two legendary warriors. After a flash of light and a split second that seemed much longer than it actually was, the pair once again stood back to back and posed.

"Flying the flag of the whistling wind, Cure Breeze!"

"Flying the flag of the crashing waves, Cure Surf!"

"Joined together under the jolly roger of love, we will calm your hatred and steal your heart! Setting sail, Cross Heart Pretty Cure!"

"KIRAINAAAAA!"

The box monster swung its arms sluggishly over its head and down towards the ground where they stood. The two girls grabbed their fairy companions and jumped directly away from the attack... which also happened to be off the cliff.

"Are you trying to get us killed-ton? Look how far away the ground is-ton!"

"You've survived worse. Besides, I have a plan!" Cure Breeze glanced back at her partner, whose hand she was still holding. "Remember how you threw that jerk earlier? Like that, but on purpose!"

"Okay, here we go!" Grabbing Breeze's hand in both of hers, Surf spun her partner in the air and threw Breeze up in the direction of the horse-faced man. This had the natural effect of launching herself at the ground, but Surf twisted in the air to land on her feet and leap back up at the side of the cliff, which she then kicked off to jump higher and in another direction.

"PreCure Punch!"

Breeze shouted energetically as she soared towards Taeyn, who just snorted and levitated out of the way while she continued past. However, this put him almost directly in the path of the leaping Cure Surf, who grabbed onto his leg, spun him around, and launched him toward the ground, where he crashed through a tree and made a crater in the earth.

Surf's momentum carried her over the top of the cliff and past the cardboard construct, and she landed on solid ground at about the same time as Cure Breeze descended from her own skyward arc beside her. The monster slowly turned to face them.

"Kirainaa?"

"Do we have a plan for that?"

"Knocking it off the cliff? That hasn't really worked on anything, though. Including us."

"It'll be okay-tun! I believe in you-tun!"

"I believe in you too-ton! As the legendary warriors, you should be able to call forth an even greater miracle-ton!"

"An even greater miracle?" "An even greater miracle?"

The two Pretty Cures looked at each other in synchronized confusion.

"Maybe we can convince it to go back to being a box?" Cure Surf tried to adjust her glasses, which she wasn't wearing and didn't need in her current form.

"It might not be smart enough to talk to-tun."

"Maybe we can attack the weak point for massive damage?" Cure Breeze's stray hair wavered into a shape like a question mark.

"I don't see anything that looks like it might be a weak point-ton."

"That's because it doesn't have one." Taeyn interjected, floating up from below the cliff. "Kiraina are creatures of pure loathing, born out of the ruin and pollution that fills my world! Not even your vaunted power of miracles can alleviate that suffering!"

"What an unfortunate creature-tun..."

"Surf, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"If we kill it, we'd be doing it a favor?"

Breeze's jaw dropped. "Huh?"

"If you leave your mouth open like that, flies will get in-ton!"

"Right... thanks, Ton. Anyway, I was thinking that maybe what it needs is love! Like if I gathered up a bunch of love energy and put it into my fist, or something..."

"I think that probably wouldn't be enough-tun. Both of you need to be working together-tun."

"Then we'll do it together! Right, Surf?"

"I wonder if that can really work?"

"It can! That's a Cure Breeze guarantee!"

"Enough!" Taeyn shouted, quaking with rage. "You can hold your stupid empowerment seminar after I defeat you! Kiraina, finish them!"

"KIRAINAAAAAAAAA!"

The monster lurched forward, its jagged teeth bearing directly down on the group.

"Whatever you're doing, do it fast-ton!"

The two heroines stood shoulder to shoulder and clasped their hands together. Cure Breeze put out her left hand, and glowing pink energy gathered into her palm as she shouted.

"The energetic love of the whistling wind! Breeze Color Charge!"

Cure Surf put out her right hand, and glowing blue energy gathered into her palm as she called out as well.

"The reliable love of the crashing waves! Surf Color Charge!"

Just as the monster was about to touch them, they brought their free hands together into a heart shape.

"PreCure Colorful Heart Cross!"

The energy mixed into a much larger heart swirling their two colors, which expanded into a great pink heart with a blue cross mark that opened and engulfed the cardboard box Kiraina. "Kiraina?" It shouted out in obvious confusion, then started to glow a soft white color. Its mouth closed for the first time since it had been created, then twisted slightly into a toothy but sincere smile.

"Aye-Aye-Ai!"

Then it popped, the monstrous form vanishing like a soap bubble. The original cardboard box and a white disc emblazoned with the image of an orange fell to the ground at their feet.

"Th- That's impossible! Absolutely impossible!" Taeyn pointed his finger at his defeated minion, but apparently thought the better of attacking the heroines again in person. A dark portal like the one from before opened underneath it, and he sank into it.

"This isn't over!"

The portal contracted behind him, leaving only a puddle of filthy water. The damage from the battle was actually on a smaller scale this time than it had been earlier in town, but within moments the handful of smashed trees, the crater at the bottom of the cliff, even the footprints of the combatants had all returned to normal as if nothing had happened.

Shima stood at the edge of the cliff, looking at the ground below where there was no evidence at all that she'd thrown a monster from another world through a tree with enough force to shatter rock. Tamaki picked up the white disc and the cardboard box, then tapped her friend on the shoulder.

"Come on. Let's go home."

Shima nodded, then turned to join her friend.

"Hey... Tamaki, would you like to stay for dinner?"

* * *

Rather than going around to the front of the building, Shima led Tamaki in through a service entrance at one end of the inn, past a busy professional kitchen and through a door marked 'staff dining'. The room was larger than a typical dining room, and centered around a long table that could probably seat a dozen or more comfortably. A counter with sinks, hot plates, and a couple of coffee pots ran along one wall.

An old woman wearing horn-rimmed spectacles and a kimono sat at one end of the table. She looked up from her meal to address the two girls.

"Good evening. Shima, you should have informed us that you would be having your friend over."

Shima bowed respectfully. "I'm very sorry, Grandmother. The errand I was helping her with took longer than expected, and I wanted to show proper hospitality."

The old woman took a sip from her soup bowl.

"Proper hospitality has different meanings depending on the situation, Shima. Guests must be served promptly, politely, and with respect to their individual needs and preferences, but so long as it is done correctly, anyone can do that. When you invite a friend, she should at least get to meet your family and speak with them a little. Not just myself, but also Ranichirou, Kazumi, and Koishi. The nature of our business may make it difficult to arrange, but-"

The door slid open, and a girl with long, purple braids and half-moon glasses poked her head into the room.

"I'm sorry to disturb you in the middle of your meal, Madame Manager, but we have a guest who urgently wishes to speak with you."

"What inconvenient timing." The old woman stood up and turned toward Tamaki. "I'm afraid I must be going, but I hope you'll stay on good terms with our Shima and come to visit again."

Tamaki nodded energetically.

"No problem! Even though we became friends just today, we can definitely reach 100% friendship! That's a Suou Tamaki guarantee!"

Shima's grandmother smiled briefly, then put on a serious expression and followed the braided girl out of the room.

* * *

"Next time!"

"What a disappointment. I was sure they'd have our theme song animated by now."

"Didn't we go through this last time? There is no theme song! We are not on TV!"

"You sure are being pessimistic. Don't you have any dreams, Shima?"

"Of course I have dreams! Everyone has dreams!"

"In my dreams, I'm giving a report in class when I realize that I don't have any clothes on! Ahahaha!"

"Wha- What's with this change of topic?!"

"Why? Wanna see?"

"NO!"

"Next time, X-Heart PreCure: Targetted Tamaki? Our hearts are united!"

"Wait, you're being targetted? By who? Why?"

"Dunno. I was trying to think of a theme song."

"I think I'll quit after all..."


	3. Targetted Tamaki? Our Hearts Are United!

"Yagami Shima, 14 years old, in 2nd year class 1 at Seaside Girls Jr. Academy. I'm interested in astronomy, and I want to learn navigation. Things I dislike: bright lights, spicy foods, and monsters. I took that last one off my list when I stopped imagining monsters in my closet, but certain circumstances have forced me to write it back in.

"I became one of the legendary warriors, Pretty Cure, along with Suou Tamaki, a girl in my class whom I've really never talked to much before. It's probably a little to soon to call her my new best friend, but I have a feeling she'll insist that it's only a matter of time. Fighting monsters is scary, and I don't think I have the right personality for a magical girl. But as long as we're together, maybe it won't be so bad..."

* * *

_X-Heart PreCure!_

_Episode 3: Targetted Tamaki? Our Hearts Are United!_

* * *

A small room among the staff quarters on the third floor of the Nanohanasou. The small, north-facing window didn't let in much light at any time of the day, but this didn't bother either of the room's long-time inhabitants. Two desks were overlooked by a bunk bed, the lower of which was already empty. The desks were arranged slightly differently, though the study materials at each desk were exactly the same, except for a couple of books about astronomy and sailing on one, and a few books on accounting and business at the other. A mirror and a pair of near-identical sailor uniforms hung on the wall beside the door.

On the top bunk, Shima woke without an alarm, stretched, and opened her eyes. Although the lights were already on, her vision was so fuzzy that she couldn't make out her fingers at arm's length. Out of pure habit, she reached out to the shelf at the head of the bed where her glasses usually were.

They weren't there.

"Here-tun!"

Shima received her glasses and put them on. A large white face with a blue wheel marking appeared in front of her.

"GAH!" Shima sat up suddenly and hit her head on the ceiling. "Don't surprise me like that!"

"I'm sorry-tun."

"Look, I-" Shima broke off suddenly and craned her head over the edge of her bunk. Seeing the bed unoccupied, she resumed. "Tun, I know you mean well. I'm just not used to this Pretty Cure stuff yet. I was almost convinced it was a dream until just now."

"That's what I thought when I woke up too-tun! I'm happy to be here with you-tun!"

"Thanks, Tun."

"I wonder how Ton-sama is doing with Tamaki-chan?"

* * *

A larger room in an ordinary house in a residential district. Daylight is visible through the window, though it faces to the west. Discarded clothing and random bits of sports equipment litter the floor, along with a couple of items that lay sprawled on top of several shrink-wrapped academic supplements that were spread atop a dusty desk. Posters adorned the greater portion of the walls and ceiling; mostly basketball players of either gender, some ice skaters, a few tennis players, and one polar bear. A twisted cocoon of white sheets and pink blankets, presumably containing the body of a sleeping girl, lay atop a western-style bed.

"Tama! Ren! It's time to get up!"

A muffled acknowledgement sounded from another room, followed shortly by an indignant feminine groan from the cocoon, which otherwise made no move to comply. Beside the desk, the lid of a storage trunk cracked open and glowed faintly pink. Tiny eyes confirmed that there was no activity in the room, nor did the door seem to be open, so the lid opened the rest of the way and a red and white fairy climbed out.

Ton made his way over to the bed, and prodded a stubby limb at where the girl's head should be in the blanket cocoon. Probably.

"It's time to get up-ton! Is it okay to stay in bed all day-ton?"

The cocoon growled, but opened up just enough to reveal a pair of grouchy pink eyes.

"Anyone who can be cheerful first thing in the morning sucks."

"It's your own fault for staying up late-ton!"

"You stayed up just as late, you traitor!"

Something thudded against the wall from the other side.

"Shut up! People are trying to sleep here!"

The cocoon split open, and Tamaki grabbed at the closest thing she could see. When Ton dodged, she snatched her pillow and chucked it angrily at the wall.

"You're supposed to be up already, you moron!"

"So are you-ton." The fairy commented softly.

Tamaki glared at him for a moment, then extricated herself fully from her blankets. After pulling her uniform from the closet, she stomped out of the room. A while later, she returned, having changed into her sailor uniform and wrapped her hair in a towel to dry. One stray hair protruded below the edge of the towel, as if daring anyone to try and tame it.

She picked up her bookbag and let Ton climb into it, and together they headed downstairs.

* * *

A breakfast of omelets and toast had already been set out on the dining room table. One seat was occupied by a handsome young man who, though taller, resembled Tamaki in more than just his black hair and pink eyes. Three places were already set with omelets and toast. As she entered the room and sat down, Tamaki greeted him with a smile.

"Morning, bro. What's for breakfast?"

He took a first bite of omelet and sipped his tea before answering. "Bacon & cheese surprise omelets."

Tamaki's fork suddenly stopped moving, and she looked critically at the piece of her omelet. "What's the surprise, Keiichi? It had better not be tabasco again."

"What a distrustful little sister I have! Actually, the surprise is that even I who prepared it am moved to tears by how good it is!"

"Liar. You're gonna pay if you've done something weird to it."

Into her mouth it went. She chewed, swallowed, then giggled slightly. Her brother smiled and sipped his tea.

After a bit more of their breakfasts had vanished, another boy burst into the room. Blue-eyed and the shorter than the people already eating, his hair had been freshly bleached white. He sat down and glared at the two who were already eating.

"Hey! No fair starting without me!"

"Fair? I can't imagine we owe anything to a brat who comes to breakfast reeking of bleach."

"Shut up, Tama-nee. I wasn't asking you!"

"She's right, Rentarou. You were the one who didn't get up when we told you to, and then you wasted that much time in the bathroom. Did you forget that if you're late for school or skip breakfast, you'll have to get up when Mom and Dad do?"

"Whatever. It's fine as long as I eat, right?"

Rentarou cut off a large chunk of his omelet and stuffed it in his mouth. A moment later, his face reddened and his eyes teared up. Tamaki took a sip of her tea.

"By now you can probably taste it: The surprise in Keiichi's bacon & cheese surprise omelet."

"Broccoli isn't a surprise! It's a crime against humanity!"

Tamaki polished off her omelet and took her toast in hand as she got up. "I'm going to school now! You'd better hurry and finish that, Ren-chan. You have farther to walk than I do!"

* * *

Tamaki arrived in Class 2-1 a little early, and sat watching the doors in her assigned seat near the back and next to the window. Most of the other students had already filtered in by the time Shima arrived, but Tamaki lost no time in waving to her as she entered and walked directly over.

"Good morning, Shima-chan! Isn't it a nice coincidence that we're in the same class?"

"We were classmates first! If anything, the coincidence is the other thing."

"Other thing?" Tamaki pondered for a moment, absent-mindedly turning to straddle her chair as Shima quietly sat down in the desk behind her. "Oh, right! That thing. We probably shouldn't talk about that in class, huh."

"It wouldn't be a good idea."

"Okay, I can handle that. By the way, why are you sitting there?"

"This. Is. My. Seat."

"Just how oblivious are you-ton?!"

With the outburst from within Tamaki's bookbag, the two girls became aware that they were suddenly the center of attention. Tamaki started rapidly gesticulating as if to direct their gazes elsewhere.

"Um... that is... we're thinking of... maybe doing puppet manzai? ...-ton?"

"What the heck-ton!"

Shima smoothly delivered a chop to the top of Tamaki's head, while also duplicating Ton's verbal tic. The rest of the class laughed and turned their attention back to their own affairs. Tamaki rubbed her head.

"Nice cover... and nice chop. Did you have to hit me that hard?"

"I didn't mean to. It just kind of happened." Shima paused, then drew closer to Tamaki and whispered. "What were you thinking, bringing him to class? How are we supposed to explain it if someone sees him?"

"It can't be helped, right? Aren't you in the same position with Tun?"

"I told her to hide outside until after school! Isn't that safer?"

"I wouldn't be sure about that. She's really small, and all sorts of things can happen outside."

"It was the best way I could think of!" Shima sighed and looked out the window. "I'll try to-" She trailed off suddenly.

"Huh? What are you going to try?"

Shima pointed out the window, where Tun was sitting in the crook of a tree branch just a few feet from the window and in plain sight. The fairy smiled and waved.

"We are so going to get caught."

* * *

After somehow enduring all of their morning classes without further incident, the girls and fairies met for lunch on the roof of the school. Due to the slope of the roof, and the proximity of the planetarium and other school buildings on this side, it didn't actually offer a view of anything except the academy grounds and the sky. As a result, those who wanted to eat on the roof were elsewhere, leaving this section deserted.

"It's lunch time-ton! Finally I get something more than toast to fill my stomach-ton!"

"You know, the school's cooks only make a limited number of these special sandwiches. You should really thank me for being fast enough to get them."

"But it's your fault my breakfast was so unsatisfying-ton!"

"You should be grateful she feeds you at all, Ton. I'm able to take care of Tun, but that's only because she doesn't eat like a pack of starving dogs. Unlike some people."

"I hope I'm not too much of a burden-tun. I never thought I would need to hide from the people of the Field of Rains-tun."

"That was partially my fault for not explaining properly. It's nothing for you to feel bad about, Tun."

Shima opened her lunchbox and passed a tray to the little white fairy. Ton watched and drooled, having already wolfed down his sandwich.

"Whoa! Shima, your lunch is awesome! As expected of the Nanohana Bentou!"

"I wouldn't call it a Nanohana Bentou, exactly. It's not an official service. My aunt works in the kitchen and likes to make sure Koishi and I get good meals."

"Koishi was... your cousin with the long braids? She goes to school here too?"

"Well, she wears her hair differently at home. Since you didn't recognize me even though I sit behind you in class, seeing her in 'school mode' will probably blow your mind."

"You wanna blow my mind? Take off your glasses. It doesn't seem like it should be such a big thing, but you look like a completely different person without them."

"Seriously? My hair grows half a meter and turns blonde, and still you fixate on my glasses?"

"Is that bad-ton? If I didn't watch you transform, I'd have thought that Cure Surf, who doesn't wear glasses, couldn't possibly be Shima-ton!"

"Not you too!"

"I think they look very pretty-tun."

"That reminds me..." Tamaki dug into her pocket and produced a fist-sized white disc with a colorful picture of an orange embossed on it. "This was the monster we fought, right? It was black and toothy when that horse guy brought it out, but now it's completely different!"

"Isn't that dangerous? Just because it changed colors doesn't mean it isn't the same Kiraina that tried to eat us."

"Really? When we put our love energy together and did that, y'know... that super cool move, I thought it looked kind of happy. Maybe it's on our side now?"

"So we hit it really hard and that makes it our friend? I can't be the only one here who thinks that sounds dumb."

"Making up after a fight is an important part of being friends-tun!"

"I don't really know how the power of miracles works-ton. Maybe it works that way-ton?"

Shima put her face in her hands. "Maybe it was something I ate. It's not too late for this to be a long, incredibly strange dream."

At that moment, a pink-haired woman rounded the corner and spotted them. Tamaki quickly tapped Shima on the shoulder, who looked up and saw that trouble was coming. Each girl grabbed a fairy and then stood up respectfully.

"I see you girls understand why I'm here."

"Yes, Mom." "Yes, Suou-sensei."

"Now, I'm not about to suggest that you shouldn't do this 'puppet manzai' or whatever, but both of you clearly know that you shouldn't be bringing unnecessary things to school that. And stuffed animals of all things! Even if you want to work out a comedy act during lunch, there's no need to bring actual puppets, right?"

"We understand." "We understand."

"Good. Now, I'm going to have to confiscate those toys for now. You can pick them up from the student council office after classes let out. Alright?"

The girls reluctantly handed over the fairies, who were very convincingly playing possum. Suou-sensei tucked them under one arm, then noticed the white disc in Tamaki's hand.

"Another toy? Hand that over too." Tamaki hesitated, but complied. "Now let's have this be the end of this. There's nothing wrong with having a little fun, but leave these things at home next time. Understood?"

"Yes." "Okay."

The two girls were left to finish their lunch.

* * *

Floating in the sky high above the school, the figure of a man with the head of a horse was barely visible against the sun's corona.

"Pretty Cure... so this is where you were hiding!"

Taeyn looked over the scene below. The legendary warriors were not the only humans on top of the building, but after a short while a bell sounded and all of them filtered back inside. With one hand on his chin, he observed and cogitated.

"What strange castles these humans build. The stockade is artfully decorated, but it completely lacks fortifications. The structures within are too utilitarian, too ugly for a palace. Yet it has windows so large and so numerous, and the humans do not even post a proper watch."

As Taeyn continued to watch, large groups of students filed out of the building and began to train on the grounds under the direction of a few adults.

"Nonsense! Utter nonsense! Why do they not train with weapons, or at least with magic? Those uniforms are too plain for nobles or officers, and too impractical for common soldiers! And what is this drill of hitting a ball with paddles back and forth over a little net? I cannot imagine what meaning that could have in combat! If the humans are not all fools, then their king must be mad!"

He stopped ranting for a moment, closed his eyes, and nodded to himself.

"But wait. What if they are not fools? What if this serenity, this utter disregard for all practical forms of warfare were to have its origin not in madness, but the sure knowledge of some invincible weapon or stratagem? There must be a reason why those Pretty Cure chose the lord of this place as their ally.

"But that confidence can still work against them! They watch neither the earth nor the sky. If I observe them long enough, I should have a chance to enter undetected. If I can learn this castle's secret, an opportunity to defeat the PreCure and secure the Cure Lodestones is certain to arise!"

* * *

Hours later, a bell rings. In the moments when most students are collecting their belongings and leaving their classrooms, a certain brunette is already clearing the gates. In a tower high above the school grounds, a monster with the head of a horse staggers against a belfry window. His mane of flowing water froths white with agitation.

"An automated alarm! And so subtle that I sensed nothing! And so... loud..."

He rested against the frame of the window, breathing heavily.

"This is bad. Pretty Cure and the lord of this castle are surely aware of my presence now, and this incessant ringing in my ears might blind me to their approach. Surely, discrection is the better part of-"

Suddenly, Taeyn leaned his head out the window.

"Do my eyes deceive me? The humans, they flee! Cowards, one and all! If this is how they face danger, I have only to find the Pretty Cure and defeat them before they flee as well!"

As he watched the humans evacuate, his gaze was drawn to a girl with long, black hair crossing the grounds between buildings. Seeing her enter a particular building, he jumped out of the tower and floated in that direction.

* * *

Inside the gymnasium, Tamaki had changed into her jersey and ponytail, and was happily engaged in an energetic game of one-on-one. The match appeared to be fairly even, but suddenly her opponent gained control of the ball and sank it into the basket.

"Good job, Hina! Outmaneuver me! Take every advantage you can get!"

"Stop encouraging me, sempai! As long as we're opponents, we're enemies!"

"Ahahahaha! You're not my enemy!" She pointed towards the open door, where a man with the head and hooves of a horse had just floated to the ground outside. "That guy is!"

Tamaki paused, suddenly aware of just what she was pointing at. Everyone in the room looked at Taeyn and stared. "What are you doing here?!"

"Insolent humans! You'll pay for your arrogance! Let's go, Kiraina!"

The horse-headed monster produced another grinning black disc and tossed it at the game ball, which had been rolling away entirely forgotten. As before, the disc stuck to and sank into the surface of the ball, which then twisted and grew into a much larger basketball with a mouth full of pointed teeth. Although it had arms and legs, they were comically thing, but there was nothing comical about its voice as it howled outrage with its first breath.

"KIRAINAAAAAAAA!"

The members of the basketball club, already shaken by Taeyn's appearance, ran for the exits.

"Yes! Run away! Run for your lives! Anyone who stands between me and the Cure Lodestones must die!"

"Then I humbly accept your offer!"

"What?"

Having run for the doors with everyone else, Tamaki waved from the doorway as she vanished outside.

"Bye!"

* * *

Although the lights were out in the planetarium, that didn't stop Shima from noticing the shaking of the building. Thinking it was an earthquake, she opened the door to brace herself against the frame, at which point it became clear that this was no natural phenomenon. The howling of the Kiraina outside was faint but unmistakable.

"Not again!"

She took off running through the halls.

"What am I doing? I hate fighting monsters, and I can't do anything without Tamaki anyway!"

"You're taking action on instinct, just like a legendary warrior should-ton!"

"I think you're very brave-tun!"

Shima looked and saw the two fairies matching her pace as they hopped along beside her.

"Ton! Tun! Didn't Suou-sensei leave you with the student council?"

"We snuck out while they were staring at the Kiraina-ton!"

"Figures. Have you seen Tamaki?"

"She was leading the Kiraina in a fun race around the grounds-tun."

"More like running for her life! Come on, you two! We can't let her face that thing alone!"

Perhaps because anyone else not busy gawking out the windows had already fled, Shima encountered nobody who might have questioned why she was running through the halls and down the stairs with a couple of plushies in tow. By some combination of good luck and happenstance, her partner was just turning towards the building when Shima opened the ground level door.

"Tamaki!" "Shima!"

"Get inside! There's too many people watching!"

"Right!"

The girl involved in the monstrous version of the steeple chase turned toward Shima and poured on the speed, reaching the door and pulling it shut moments ahead of the mostly spherical Kiraina.

"PreCure Cross My Heart!" "PreCure Cross My Heart!"

* * *

"Kirainaaa!"

Seeing its prey escape through the double doors that were obviously too small for it to fit through, the monster that was also a basketball skidded in front of them. The stop was sufficiently sudden that the pursuing Taeyn struck it from behind.

"Kiraina, what are you stopping for? Go in there and crush them!"

"Kiraina!"

"So smash through the wall, you wuss! It can't be any harder than that other one!"

The sharp-toothed sphere seemed to consider this for a moment, but the point was rendered moot when the doors flew open, revealing the freshly transformed girls.

"Flying the flag of the whistling wind, Cure Breeze!"

"Flying the flag of the crashing waves, Cure Surf!"

"Joined together under the jolly roger of love, we will calm your hatred and steal your heart! Setting sail, Cross Heart Pretty Cure!"

"KIRAINAAAA!"

The monster ball swung its comically slender fist down at the two heroines, who immediately leapt out of the way and high into the air. The punch still struck with wall-shattering force, rocking the building and knocking the doors free of their hinges.

"Excellent! Excellent! Show these humans how little we think of their shoddy human castle!"

Cure Surf touched down on the ground and pointed an accusatory finger at the man-horse.

"Just what are you trying to prove? Earthquakes are one thing, but nobody expects a building to get attacked by monsters!"

Cure Breeze landed from her jump next to Surf, and pointed at the monsters alongside her.

"Yeah! This is a school, not a castle! We come here to learn and have fun!"

Taeyn snorted. "What difference does that make? If it doesn't prepare you for war, then it's worse than useless!"

"It's not useless-ton!"

"Anything the legendary warriors are so willing to fight for has to be valuable-tun!"

The man-horse snorted again. "I don't have to listen to this nonsense. Kiraina, finish them!"

"Kirainaa!"

The ball-shaped monster grimaced and vaulted many times its own height. At the apex of the jump, it halted in midair, started rapidly spinning, and then shot directly at the two heroines.

Cure Breeze and Cure Surf glanced at each other and linked hands. As it had the previous time, pink and blue energy flowed into their free palms.

"The energetic love of the whistling wind! Breeze Color Charge!"

"The reliable love of the crashing waves! Surf Color Charge!"

"PreCure Colorful Heart Cross!"

Their two hands came together in a heart shape, which again merged their energies together into a great pink heart with a blue cross mark that opened and engulfed the attacking basketball Kiraina. "Kiraina?" It shouted out in obvious confusion, then started to glow a soft white color. Its mouth closed, then twisted slightly into a toothy but sincere smile.

"Aye-Aye-Ai!"

Then, just like the previous one, the Kiraina popped, its monstrous form vanishing like a soap bubble. A basketball and a white disc emblazoned with the image of a pair of sneakers fell to the ground at their feet.

Taeyn stared at them with his mouth wide open, then mostly recovered.

"This is preposterous! That was completely the opposite of what I commanded!"

"Hey, it was doing the best it could!"

"Is that really something we should be defending it for, Breeze?"

"Silence! I will not be drawn into such an idiotic debate! Until next time!"

The portal of darkness opened on the ground beneath Taeyn's feet, and he sunk into it, once again leaving behind only a puddle of dirty water. Like the previous occasions, the battle damage... this time including a gaping hole in the gymasium and giant footprints all over the grounds, as well as the door and wall of the main school building that had been smashed apart, all of it rippled and vanished as if nothing had happened. Cure Surf watched the process intently, while Cure Breeze walked over to the white disc and picked it up.

"Hey, it's another one of these things."

"Huh? Oh, I was thinking about something else."

* * *

The door of the planetarium opened, revealing the shape of a girl backlit by the ambiance of the hallway beyond, but this time there was nobody inside the room to take note of the arrival. Shima reached her hand in and turned on the light.

Tamaki entered behind her, looking around. Aside from the door they'd come in from and a couple of emergency exits, the room was almost perfectly round. The tiered seating gave it a theatrical atmosphere, though this was diminished some by the presence of cabinets, a sink, and a whiteboard on the lowest tier, where they stood. Rising from the center of that same level to about the level where the domed ceiling began to curve, there was a metal pillar that held a huge bulb with many protrusions.

"Wow! What is this place?"

"The planetarium. There are classes here a few times a year, but mostly it's my secret base."

"You have a room this big all to yourself?"

Shima avoided meeting Tamaki's gaze.

"W- well, it's not as if it's for my personal use. But as the president of the astronomy club... I was thinking that maybe we could have Ton and Tun hide out here during school."

"I think that's a great idea-ton! And if anyone comes in while you're gone, I'll run them off-ton!"

"Actually, I was going to suggest you hide under the sink. It'd cause problems if people see you."

"I'm a manly warrior-ton! I can't just hide from trouble-ton!"

Tun opened the cabinet under the sink. It was empty except for a bucket of cleaning supplies, and easily large enough to hold both fairies.

"I like it-tun! Don't you think it looks homey-tun?"

"It's humiliating-ton! I'd rather take my chances-ton!"

"Are you sure about that, Ton?" Tamaki lifted him up to eye level. "Are you sure you could find your way back to us if someone else catches you and takes you home?"

"I've heard that adults sometimes assume unfamiliar creatures are extraterrestrials," Shima added. "If they catch you, they might take you to a laboratory and stick pins in you!"

"A- actually, now that I look at it, it is kind of a cozy little cabin-ton! I think I'll test it right now with a little siesta-ton!"

The little red fairy he dived under the sink and closed the door behind him. Tun smiled brightly, then opened the door and climbed in after him. A moment later, Tamaki had her arm around Shima's shoulder.

"W- what are you doing?"

"That's my line, isn't it? Why didn't you tell me you were a club president, Shima-chan? You've got a cool room like this and everything!"

"It's not like I was trying to keep it secret or anything! I just didn't think an outdoor type like you would be interested in a club that mostly sits around in the dark."

Tamaki stepped back and pondered.

"Well... it does sound kind of dull if you put it that way. But it's not like you sit around in the dark for no reason, right?"

"Of course not! It needs to be dark in here so we can project the stars onto the ceiling!"

"That sounds kind of fun. Can I see?"

Shima turned out the lights and fired up the projector. A particular version of the night sky appeared above their heads.

"This one is my current favorite. When the stars are right, something good will happen!"

"When the stars are right? What happens then?"

"Dead Cthulhu rises from his house at R'yleh."

"I don't really get it, but that sounds kind of eerie."

"It's a joke. There are a lot of scary stories about him, but Cthulhu doesn't really exist. Probably."

* * *

From the rear wall of the academy, the steep, rocky bluffs descend to a sandy beach. As night falls, the sea breeze begins to weaken. The waves shift with the tides. The stars appear, shining brilliantly in the sky, which on this particular night is devoid of moonlight.

Nobody watches to see a diminutive figure break the surface. If one had, they would see its white hooded cloak by the light of a luminescent stalk that protrudes frontwards out of the hood. Standing about knee high, it leans on a wooden staff as it walks, still dripping with sea water even as it moves slowly up the beach and away from the sea.

* * *

"Next time!"

"Cross Heart PreCure, come on everyone!"

"Tamaki, what are you singing?"

"It's our theme song!"

"You can't just steal the HeartCatch theme song and change it to have our name in it!"

"It's okay if I change more words then?"

"Don't use their song at all!"

"Meh, fine. Cross! Cross! Cross my heart, PreCure!"

"Now you're doing it to the Smile theme song! Are you trying to get us in trouble?!"

"What's wrong with ripping off fairy tales? Disney does it all the time!"

"Smile PreCure wasn't a fairy tale, and neither are we!"

"Why not? We've got two fairies already and now another's gonna show up!"

"Another fairy? We're having enough trouble with Ton and Tun!"

"Next time, X-Heart PreCure: It came from the sea! PreCure vs Kaiju?!"

"Kaiju?! Tamaki, don't you think that's a little much?"

"Happy birthday to PreCure! Happy birthday to- GAH!"

"Didn't I tell you to knock it off?!"

"Sh- Shima... what a big harisen you have!"

"The better to punish you with!"

"You'll have to catch me first!"

"Come back here, you idiot!"


	4. It Came From The Sea! PreCure vs Kaiju?

"I wasn't really expecting it to be easy, but it turns out being a legendary warrior is all kinds of trouble! When we brought Ton and Tun to school with us, they almost got us discovered, and Mom- I mean, one of the teachers even confiscated them! Worse yet, that Taeyn guy attacked me during basketball practice and I had to run like crazy until Shima showed up!

"At least I know where to look for her now if he does that again. It turns out she's the president of the astronomy club, and has a really cool club room that Ton and Tun can even hide in! I didn't know Seaside even had an astronomy club! I wonder why she didn't mention it earlier..."

* * *

_X-Heart PreCure!_

_Episode 4: It Came From The Sea! PreCure vs Kaiju?!_

* * *

"Hey, have you heard?" "Have you heard?" "About that rumor?"

"A monster attacked the school?" "Can that actually happen?" "I know how it sounds, but my friend swears it's the truth!"

"Nothing against your friend, but..." "Isn't that a bit too unbelievable?" "It's true! I'm in the craft club and our president saw the whole thing too!"

"Are you sure they're not just going along with it for fun?" "Monsters and magical girls, seriously..." "I heard they blew it away in one shot and fixed all the damage with magic!"

"Can you believe it?" "I can't believe it." "But wouldn't it be cool, if there actually was a Pretty Cure?"

"Even if it was just once, I'd like to meet them!"

"Well, as it happens, I- ow! Mmph! Mm-mmph-mmph! Shima, what gives?"

"It's you're own fault, Tamaki. You were about to say something troublesome."

"It's because Yagami's too serious to like something silly like PreCure."

"That's not true! Actually, Shima is- mmph! Mmph-mm-mmph!"

"Do you think at all? Suppose for a moment that there really are two girls who dress up in flashy outfits and fight monsters. If a _normal girl _like one of us were to meet them, isn't it likely that we'd get attacked by monsters too?"

"Oh? Oh! Yeah, that would suck."

"Wow, Yagami. You really know how to suck the fun out of an urban legend." "More like a crazy rumor if you ask me." "I'm telling you, they're real!"

"Excuse me!"

The classroom door slid open, and a tall and beautiful redhead rushed to the front of the room.

"Sorry to interrupt, but has anyone seen an embroidered pillow? It's yellow and has a picture of a boat with a heart on the sail." She looked around as if expecting a response, then sighed. "If you see it, please bring it to the craft club room, okay? It's a precious treasure left by our sempai!"

The girl darted out as quickly as she'd come in.

"Wasn't that the Crafts Club president?" "I hope they find their pillow." "Me too. It sounds really cute!"

"Wasn't the cooking club was missing some stuff, too?" "That was just a bunch of pots and stuff." "Boring! Now, about those magical girls..."

* * *

Tamaki's stray hair wavered inquisitively as she looked at what the two fairies had done under the planetarium's sink.

"A tea set? And a hammock?"

"Having a good place to nap is an important part of being a warrior-ton!"

Shima nudged Tamaki aside and got a look for herself.

"You know, if someone comes looking for the cleaning supplies, they're in for a shock whether you're down there or not."

"We could move them somewhere else-ton! I'd like a bit more elbow room anyway-ton."

"Where did you get all this stuff anyway?"

"We brought it with us from the Field of Currents-tun!"

"What? How? That's not the sort of stuff you can carry in your pockets, and you don't even have pockets! Or clothes!"

"You shouldn't sweat the small stuff, Shima-chan!"

"Would you like some tea-tun? It's delicious-tun!"

"No, thanks." Shima paused. "Tamaki, don't you have basketball practice?"

Tamaki nodded. "I do, but after all the stuff that's gone missing in school today, I was a little worried about these two."

"Yeah, I was too." Shima adjusted her glasses. "Putting aside how they got all that stuff here, I'm at least glad they don't have any of the stuff that went missing."

"Hey! That's insulting-ton! I've been proudly sleeping here all day-ton!"

"That's not really something to be proud of..."

"It's something Ton-sama does very well-tun!"

"You know... forget I said anything. Would you two mind getting into my bookbag? I've been thinking we should all go to Tamaki's practice together."

"Really? It's kind of sudden, but if you wanna shoot some hoops, I won't hold back!"

"Not happening. I just don't want to be far away from you if that guy attacks again."

"Oh." Tamaki looked disappointed for a moment. Then she smiled, her stray hair bouncing as if nodding for her. "Actually, that's a really good idea."

With that matter agreed to, the fairies climbed into Shima's bag. Then they all left the room together.

* * *

"Shima?"

Shima turned from locking the door to see Koishi approaching from the nearby staircase. Her purple braids were tied in the assymetrical knot she usually wore to school, along with her usual half-moon glasses.

"Oh, is that someone from your club?"

"No, Tamaki. It's my cousin, Koishi. You met her at Nanohanasou last week."

Tamaki looked at the girl for a couple moments, with an expression suggestive of doing long division in her head.

"Oh! Sorry about that. You look a bit different with your hair tied in a starfish."

"A starfish?" Koishi giggled. "Nobody's called it that before."

"I was honestly expecting a more dramatic reaction. She makes such a big deal about my glasses, after all."

"That's because your glasses are a big deal, Shima! You take them off and it's like... whoa!"

"Well, it's nice to know she's actually making an effort to recruit more members. I may be student council president, but there are actual limits to my power."

"Huh?"

Shima grabbed Tamaki by the arm and interposed herself between the two girls.

"Actually, we just came up here to make sure nothing went missing. I was thinking I'd go watch the basketball club practice for a while. Right, Tamaki?"

"Well, that is what we were going to go do, but-"

"Right! And we should go do it _right now!_ I'll see you at home, Koishi!"

Thrust ahead by an insistent Shima, Tamaki gave up and nodded her head in agreement. The purple-haired girl watched their sudden departure with a mildly displeased look on her face.

* * *

Except for a short girl with a ponytail, who was sitting on the bleachers reading a book, the gymnasium was completely deserted.

"Hina! Where is everyone?"

"Oh? Hi, sempai. Practice was cancelled. Everyone else is out looking for the nets."

"The nets?" The girls looked at the basketball hoops, which had nothing where the nets would normally be. "Why cancel practice over that? It's not like we really need them."

"We don't, but the soccer, volleyball, tennis, and lacrosse teams are missing their nets too. A bunch of people went over to Overlook to see if the boys there took them, and everyone else is out searching the grounds. The captain asked me to stay here and tell anyone who turned up late."

"I see. I guess I'd better go help. What are you gonna do, Shima?"

"Going back alone would be pointless." Shima sighed. "I'll come along."

As they left the gym, Tamaki turned toward the sports fields and started looking around.

"Now, if I were a bunch of nets, where would I hide?"

Tamaki felt a tap on her shoulder, and turned to see Shima pointing at the school gate, where the tail end of a ball of nets was bouncing out of sight. She wasted no time sprinting after it, while pulling Shima along behind her by the wrist.

"Get back here, nets! The sports clubs need you!"

As might be expected, the nets did not respond, and instead continued to bounce around the next corner towards the back of the school walls. Tamaki continued her pursuit with lively determination, not slowing down even as the ball bounced past the end of the school and off the rocky bluff behind it.

"Tamaki! Tamaki, cliff!"

"Stairs!"

Tamaki let go of Shima's hand as she rounded the rear corner and leapt onto the metal railing of a staircase that was carved into the cliff behind the school, then held her hands out for balance as she skidded down the rail. She didn't even pause at the landing where the stairs doubled back halfway down, instead grabbing the rail with her trailing hand and using it as a pivot to jump down onto the lower rail and skid the rest of the way down, where she was just in time to see the nets bounce into a cave on the beach.

"Victory! The only way out of that cave is the way you go in!"

Several moments later, Shima caught up, having descended the steps in a much less reckless fashion.

"Tamaki, are you nuts? You could have seriously hurt yourself doing that!"

"She's right-ton! You may be a legendary warrior, but you can still get hurt if you fall off a cliff-ton!"

Tamaki puffed out her cheeks indignantly. "It worked, didn't it? Anyway, now we've got our thief cornered! I'll just bet that Taeyn guy was behind this somehow!"

"And what this that I'm meant to be involved with?"

The girls turned to face Taeyn, who was floating above the water behind them.

"Taeyn! All the things that are missing from the school are your doing!"

"Still you insist on calling that abominable fortress a school... I don't know or care what has been going on within those walls, but I can assure you it has nothing to do with me! I have no need to invade it when I can just wait for you to come outside! Now hand over the Cure Lodestones!"

"No way, Taeyn! We'll fight you as many times as we have to!"

"Tamaki's right! But if you'd go away and leave us alone, we'd be okay with that!"

"Oh, that's a good idea! You should do that! Why pick a fight with us when you could be at home watching a movie?"

"Stop wasting my time! Let's go, Kiraina!"

Taeyn pulled out a now familiar black disc and flung it into the sea, where it struck a floating octopus and merged with it, causing the creature to grow to gigantic proportions and giving it a huge mouth full of sharp teeth.

The girls clasped their hands together and held out the Cure Lodestones.

"PreCure Cross My Heart!" "PreCure Cross My Heart!"

"Flying the flag of the whistling wind, Cure Breeze!"

"Flying the flag of the crashing waves, Cure Surf!"

"Joined together under the jolly roger of love, we will calm your hatred and steal your heart! Setting sail, Cross Heart Pretty Cure!"

After they had transformed, Cure Surf looked up at the monster with obvious apprehension.

"Isn't that a lot bigger than the others?"

Breeze nodded. "It is pretty big. I hope our thief doesn't sneak away while we're busy fighting it."

"Is that the part you should be worried about?"

"This sounds like a job for me-ton! I'll keep this thing busy while you two go catch the thief-ton!"

"No, we'll handle the Kiraina! You watch the cave and yell if anything comes out!"

"Oh, that's a good plan too-ton! I'll get that stuff back, just you watch-ton!"

Glowing enthusiastically pink, Ton bounced off across the sand and into the cave. Tun bounced after him.

"Ton-sama! I'm coming too-tun!"

Cure Breeze watched them bounce away. "I wonder if they're going to be okay?"

"Worry about yourselves first! Kiraina!"

"KIRAAAAINAAAA!"

The octopus monster lashed its tentacles across the sand, which gouged furrows into the beach. However, it failed to strike the Cures, who both leapt high into the air to avoid it. The Kiraina gave no indication of being upset with this, and simply extended its limbs into the air after them.

Cure Breeze flailed her arms and legs about in a fruitless attempt to change her trajectory. She was caught by a waiting tentacle, which wrapped around her and pinned her arms to her sides. In the air nearby, Cure Surf managed twist herself just enough to get a grip on the tentacle that attempted to grasp her, and grappled with it doggedly.

"Ha! This is what you get for resisting me, Pretty Cure! You may be strong enough to defeat a Kiraina or two, but your fighting experience – no, all of the experience in your lives is not enough to challenge me!"

"We won't give in!" Cure Breeze shouted defiance while struggling ineffectively to free her arms. "Even if we've only taken a couple of steps, we've come far enough that we can't stop here! That's a Cure Breeze guarantee!"

Taeyn floated closer to Cure Breeze, incidentally turning his back to Cure Surf, who was trading punches with two of the octopus's tentacles while another held her upside-down by the ankle.

"That guarantee again... Let me show you how little it means! Kiraina, crush this one! Never mind the other!"

"KIRAAAINAA!"

"Breeze!"

With a plaintive wail, the monster withdrew all of its tentacles from Cure Surf but the one that still held her suspended, and focused on squeezing the life out of Cure Breeze. For her own part, Surf redoubled her efforts, kicking the heel of her boot vigorously against the appendage that held her up.

"Kirainaa!"

A tiny black dart struck the tentacle just above where she was kicking. The monster cried out in pain and flung her at the staircase leading back up the cliff.

When the dust cleared, Cure Surf was picking herself up out from a pile of rubble that had formerly been the middle part of the stairs. The railing had snapped where she struck it, and a portion several meters long was now affixed to the ground only at one end. She put her hand on it, and it shifted unsteadily at its foundation.

She gazed at it thoughtfully.

Cure Surf grabbed the railing with both hands, braced her legs against the damaged foundation, and heaved. A small cloud of concrete dust scattered into the air as it gave way, then she charged headlong at the Kiraina, brandishing the railing like a polearm.

The octopus monster had gathered all of its arms into a ball, within which Cure Breeze could not be seen. Cure Surf lashed out with the railing, striking its limbs near the base, then darting to the opposite side and attacking again.

"KIRAAAAINAAAAA!"

The monster groaned in pain, and its grip on the other girl loosened. Cure Surf swung the railing again, and now her improvised weapon had the Kiraina's full attention. Seven tentacles disengaged from the ball and wrapped around the railing, which she surrendered without complaint. Then she leapt at the tentacle holding Cure Breeze and kicked it fiercely. It spasmed in pain. The two Cures dropped to the ground and stood together.

"Not again! Separate them, Kiraina! Don't let them work together!"

"Kiraina?"

"The energetic love of the whistling wind! Breeze Color Charge!"

"The reliable love of the crashing waves! Surf Color Charge!"

"PreCure Colorful Heart Cross!"

The girls put their hands together in a heart shape, and the familiar pink heart crossed with blue appeared. Too near to flee, the Kiraina was drawn into the heart, then its expression softened as the power of love flowed through it.

"Aye-Aye-Ai!"

The monster vanished, leaving only an ordinary octopus flopping on the ground next to a white disc marked with a picture of a takoyaki ball.

"Mark my words, Pretty Cure! However ridiculous and frustrating, these are only setbacks! I will defeat you!"

Taeyn sank into his portal, leaving behind only the usual puddle of dirty water. The furrows in the beach, the damage to the stairs, and even the railing that Cure Surf had uprooted and used as a weapon were back to normal a few moments later.

* * *

Hidden in a tree at the top of the cliff, a young man in a black suit slipped a blowgun into his pocket. Satisfied of his remaining undetected, he slipped out of the tree and walked away.

* * *

Shortly afterwards, Tamaki and Shima stood at the entrance to the cave.

"Ton!" "Tun!" "Are you two okay in there?" "It's okay if you let the thief get away! I promise I won't get mad!"

"I'm the one who's getting mad-ton! Why are you assuming I'd screw up so easily-ton?!"

The girls followed the fairy's bright pink glow into the cave.

"Ahahaha... sorry about that." "You are kind of a screwup, though."

"After all the trouble I went through to find the legendary warriors, it hurts that you'd think of me as a fool-ton."

"It's okay, Ton-sama!" Tun's voice echoed from nearby. "I don't think of you as a fool-tun!"

After a moment, they turned a corner into a nook that was lit by more than just Ton's indignation. There was a little campfire burning, over which Tun was brewing tea in a tiny kettle.

"Hey, you found our nets!"

"It's not just that, Tamaki. I'm pretty sure those are the pots and things the cooking club was missing."

"So that's probably the pillow from the Crafts Club? But what about that sack of rice on top of it? Where did that come from?"

"How rude. I'll have you know that I was quite a looker in my youth."

What the girls had taken to be a particularly lumpy sack of rice pulled back its hood, revealing the wrinkled face of a fairy. A flexible stalk with a tiny light at the end of it protruded from this latest fairy's forehead.

"It talks!"

"She's a she-ton. This is the Elder from the Field of Currents-ton."

"She was the one who gave us the Cure Lodestones and sent us here to find the legendary warriors-tun."

"Oh. But why does she have all the stuff that was stolen from the academy?"

"When you get to be as old as I am, you need a few comforts to live properly."

"You can't just take all this stuff! It belongs to the school!"

"Oh? I'm over one hundred years old! Who are you humans to be scolding me?"

"Suou Tamaki." "Yagami Shima. We're students at the academy you took all this stuff from."

"They're also the legendary warriors, Pretty Cure-ton!"

"Oho... Is that so?"

"Yes-tun! They're able to use the Cure Lodestones to call forth the power of miracles-tun!"

The Elder held her stubby, wrinkled hands in front of her face as if deep in thought, then stood up.

"I suppose it's not an unreasonable request if it's the legendary warriors. You may take these things back where they came from. I will make other arrangements."

"Oh. Thanks, then?"

"Wait. You mean we have to carry these things back to school by ourselves? Shouldn't you help?"

"I had enough trouble getting it all down here. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to see about my new living arrangements."

The Elder pulled her hood back up and bounced out of the cave, leaving the two surprised girls and the other two fairies to their own devices.

* * *

After enlisting the help of the basketball club to haul all of the purloined goods back up to the academy proper and parting with Shima for the afternoon, Tamaki encountered Koishi on her way out of the school.

"Would you mind coming with me for a few moments, Suou-san? Student council business."

"Oh, sure. What ya need?"

"It's entirely paperwork, I'm afraid. You're not in trouble or anything, but since you found those lost items, we need to get a written statement from you."

Koishi led Tamaki to the student council office and gave her a handful of papers to fill out. As she waited for Tamaki to finish with them, her gaze fell on a bare spot on one of the desks.

"Come to think of it, you and Shima had some stuff confiscated recently, didn't you? I thought it was strange when you picked up the stuffed animals and left that funny disc here. Suou-sensei brought it in at the same time, so I figured it was part of the puppet manzai everyone was talking about."

"Huh? Oh, there was something like that, wasn't there? We keep getting them, so I kinda forgot. I guess I should collect it now?"

"It's not here anymore. Shima must have picked it up when I was out."

"Well, that should about take care of your papers. But what do I do with this one? It's blank."

"Sorry about that one. I was in a bit of a hurry and didn't have time to print it properly. Just write your name here where I circled and I'll take care of the rest later."

"Okay. Seeya 'round."

Tamaki signed as directed and handed it back to Koishi with the rest as she left. Koishi smirked to herself.

"Yes, you certainly will."

* * *

"Next time!"

"Something feels off about this. We did fight a giant sea creature, but is that really enough to call it a kaiju episode?"

"I know how you feel, Shima. How can it be PreCure vs Kaiju if we're not teaming up with Godzilla?"

"Tamaki, 'versus' literally implies opposition. If it's us vs kaiju, we can't be on the same side!"

"No no no... The way it works is, we versus Godzilla and team up to fight something bigger than either of us, like MechaGodzilla or Fusion!"

"Or MechaGodzilla and Fusion doing the fusion dance."

"They are?! There's only one solution to this! We've gotta learn that dance!"

"If you think I'm going to do it with some overgrown lizard, you're out of your mind."

"Next time, X-Heart PreCure: The holy grail is takoyaki? The whimsical Watanabe sisters!"

"What's with that title? It's like we're- You don't even care, do you?"

"Come home safe, Godzilla! We promise we'll wait for you!"

"We will not!"


	5. The Holy Grail is Takoyaki?

"After all that stuff went missing from all over the school, I was sure it was an evil plot, but it turned out to be the Elder of the Field of Currents. That didn't stop Taeyn from attacking us anyway, and something really bad might have happened if Shima hadn't been there with me! I guess I really owe her one now.

"The Elder seemed a little grouchy, but maybe that was just because we asked her to give it all back. We had to carry it all back to the school by ourselves, and then the student council president made me fill out a bunch of papers. It wasn't so bad, though. She even helped me fill out one that wasn't printed yet. She must really have those things memorized!"

* * *

_X-Heart PreCure!_

_Episode 05: The Holy Grail is Takoyaki? The Whimsical Watanabe Sisters!_

* * *

"Why didn't I do this last night?!"

"You were up late studying-tun. That's important too-tun."

For a moment, Shima seriously considered responding to the muffled voice from her bookbag, but for a couple of reasons decided not to. For one thing, she couldn't think of an answer that didn't still put her in the wrong. More importantly, she didn't want to answer any questions about why she was talking to her bookbag, and Nanohanasou's staff dining room, where she was trying frantically to get together an edible lunch from the leavings of the staff breakfast, was the kind of place where someone could walk in at any moment.

Counting herself fortunate that she'd managed to scrounge up some lukewarm tea and stuff bits of this and that into her lunchbox, she was nearly to the door when it slammed open in front of her.

Without pause, a boy in a black gakuran entered the room, and began scavenging the remains of the staff breakfast with methods and urgency not unlike what Shima had been doing moments before. He had dark blue hair, equally dark eyes, was only slightly taller than her, and she'd never seen him before.

"Hey! This room's only for employees!"

"I'm staff. Been here... a week?"

"Are you asking me? Anyhow, there's nothing left here! I barely managed to get a lunch of my own from this mess!"

As she looked on in horror, he tipped up a bowl of brine which had formerly contained pickles and drained it into a thermos, then scooped some leftover wasabi from the table, grabbed a handful of coffee grounds out of the coffee machine, added those to the thermos and sealed it.

"That's... you can't seriously mean to eat that! You'll make yourself sick!"

"Don't care. No time. New school. First day."

"With that uniform... You're starting at Overlook?"

"Yeah, and I'm late. Aren't you?"

The question brought her back to awareness of her own situation. She rushed out the door behind him and continued the conversation.

"It'll be okay if we run. Probably."

"Pretty sure it's not a coed school?"

"Neither is Seaside, but our schools are almost right next to each other. I can show you the short way."

* * *

"That's strange. Who'd have expected you'd meet a guy transferring into Overlook on the same day we're getting a transfer student here?"

"We're getting a transfer student? I guess I don't have to ask where you heard that. Anyway, what's really strange is that he'd be working at the inn a week before I even meet him! I mean, it's not like I'm the successor, but it's still the family business and I live there too!"

"Eh, it's not that strange. We have my Mom for homeroom and math, and then for all I know she does flower arrangements all day. What's important isn't every little thing we do all day, but what we do when we're together."

"Like when you fall asleep in class."

"You know what I mean."

The classroom door slid open, and Suou-sensei entered. The class representative gave the traditional orders to stand, bow, and be seated. The teacher stood before the lectern and cleared her throat.

"As many of you already know, we have a new student joining us today. You may also be aware that someone started a betting pool about whether I'd begin class with some ridiculous digression and how long I'd make her wait outside, so I'm going to make a few things clear: This is not a cartoon. The pool is closed. Watanabe-san, come see me after class." Near the front of the room, a hazel-eyed girl with brown, shoulder-length hair stiffened in her seat. The teacher turned towards the door and beckoned. "Please come in, Hirouin-san."

A girl with green eyes and pale green ringlet curls down to her shoulders walked into the room. She held her arms close to her sides as if trying to minimize her presence and stood quietly at the front of the room.

"Hirouin-san, please write your name on the board and introduce yourself to the class."

"Okay." The girl did as she was bid, then turned to face the other students. "My name is Hirouin Himeka... Pleased to meet you."

"Short and to the point, I see. Let's have you sit... is that really the only open seat we have? Next to Watanabe-san, then."

The moment the green-haired girl sat down, her new neighbor was already speaking.

"Hi! What's your delusion?"

"My what?" The brunette was obviously friendly, which only confused the new girl further.

"Your delusion! The unusual thing that makes you special! The destiny written for you in the stars! Mine is getting into locked rooms. It was originally last week's delusion, but trying to start a gambling ring didn't really- maybe I should save that story for later." As she spoke, the girl had gradually moved from being seated in her chair to sitting on top of Himeka's desk. It was almost as if she had no concept of personal space.

"I don't have a delusion! I'm a perfectly ordinary girl!"

"You're wrong. Even if it isn't something about yourself, there has to be something you think it great! Something you can't stop thinking about! I told you two of mine, and those were straight up silly, so out with it! What's your delusion?"

"I don't know! I was just born last week and I'm scared and the student council made me fill out forms that hadn't been printed yet and I think I screwed it up and I just want to make some friends and I really wanted to tell a funny joke when I introduced myself but I choked and I couldn't think of anything even though it was the perfect opportunity and what if everybody thinks I'm boring?"

"You're not boring." The brunette got off Himeka's desk and pulled her into a hug. "That's actually a pretty good delusion, y'know."

"It is?"

"I like it! My name's Yui, by the way. Wanna hang out sometime?"

"...okay."

Tamaki's stray hair waving languidly back and forth as she watched this exchange from the back of the room.

"Was there always someone like that in this class?"

"Tamaki, I want you to close your eyes."

"Okay."

"Now, without opening your eyes, try describing any one person in the room."

"Blue hair, blue eyes, big huge coke bottle glasses- ow!"

"Not me, you ditz!"

"Well, I was trying to think of someone else, but I got stuck! Ahahahaha!"

* * *

By the time the last bell rang, Yui was already in front of the planetarium door. Rather than waiting for someone to come and unlock it, the eccentric brunette had stuck a long, straight pin into the lock and was energetically trying to turn the handle.

"You know, it works better if you have the key."

"I went through a lot of trouble to get an actual hatpin, and I haven't got a key. And hatpins are traditionally used for picking locks, so I'm picking this lock!"

"Actually, hatpins are traditionally used to keep a hat on your head, and sticking something that straight in a pin tumbler lock hasn't any chance of working unless it's keyed to a blank."

"Well, maybe it is?"

"It's not." Shima produced the key and held it against Yui's hatpin. "See? There's no way your pin is going to just magically bend into that shape. Worse, it's liable to break off in the lock and then even the key won't work. I can't begin to explain the trouble that would cause, but if you really need to get into the planetarium I can let you in."

"But that takes all the fun out of it!"

"You're trying to break into the planetarium just for fun?"

"Of course! Getting to see inside rooms I have no business being in is the whole point of this delusion!"

"And you don't know the first thing about picking locks?"

"If I knew how to properly go about it, it wouldn't be a delusion now, would it?"

"Oh, it's the delusion girl. What's up?"

Tamaki approached with a casual wave.

"Delusion girl? She's in our class, you know."

Tamaki shrugged. "It's how I remember her."

"Too bad what happened to the pool earlier, Suou. You would have won."

"Pool? What pool?"

"You know, I was running a pool and your bet exactly matched how long Suou-sensei..." Yui trailed off in mid-sentence. "She's your mother, isn't she? You told your mother I was badmouthing her."

"Yup."

"I guess that's my own fault. I suppose you hate me now."

"Not really, but it isn't a great first impression."

"...first impression? We've been in the same class for a whole month now! Do you really mean to say that nothing I've done up to now has made any impression at all?!"

"Why? What did you do?"

"Nothing to speak of, apparently! I've gotta take it up a notch!"

"Wait!" Shima grabbed Yui to keep her from doing anything rash. "I understand that you want to make an impression, but it can be really hard to get Tamaki's attention. I'm sure the rest of the class has noticed how energetic you are and just aren't sure how to approach you!"

"Really?"

"Shima's right! Even if you haven't made much of an impression yet, we know who you are now. If you just- ow! Shima, what was that about?"

"Trust me. If you give her a Tamaki-chan guarantee, you'll only be feeding her delusions."

"But my delusions need nourishment! What's a Tamaki-chan guarantee?"

"Gotcha!" "Gah!"

A hand grabbed Yui's collar from behind. A moment later, Koishi had a grip on one of her wrists and had twisted it behind the would-be delinquent's back.

"Watanabe Yui, you've got some nerve sticking around after school when you're wanted in detention."

"Miss President! Of all the strange places... how did you know I was here?!"

"I didn't. I came to ask my cousin how club recruitment is going, and you just happened to be here. How is it, by the way?"

"Recruitment?" Shima's gaze wandered upwards and to the right. "Um... finding new members... the rate of recruitment has not declined..."

Koishi rolled her eyes.

"At least you're making friends. I'm going to take this one and have a little chat with her, but don't think you're off the hook."

She marched her captive away. Tamaki scratched her head.

"She made it sound like you're in trouble too. Is something going on?"

"Not particularly."

* * *

As soon as the lights were on, Shima crossed the planetarium and opened the cupboard under the sink. Tun calmly sipped from her teacup. Ton started out of his hammock and fell face down on the floor.

"Who goes there-ton! I know Krav Maga-ton!"

"I have a hard time believing that."

"I know the word-ton! That like knowing how to do it-ton!"

"That's like calling yourself a drunken master when you're actually just drunk."

"Ton-sama wouldn't do that-tun. We're too young to drink-tun."

"You are? I guess that explains Ton, but you're so calm and collected! I figured you were-"

"Don't look down on me-ton! I'm a proud and honorable warrior-ton!"

"You're a buffoon."

Everyone in the room turned to face the small, cloaked figure in the doorway.

"Elder!"

Shima rushed over to the door and looked down the hallway outside, which seemed to be deserted.

"You can't just walk around here!"

"Evidence suggests otherwise."

"What if someone had seen you?"

"What of it? I didn't come here to answer stupid questions. There's a great deal of work to be done."

"What work-ton? We found the legendary warriors-ton. All we have to do now is beat the bad guys and we can all go home-ton!"

"Oh, so it's that simple, is it? Why do you dopes think I sent you to the Field of Rains?"

"To find the legendary warriors-tun!"

"That's not even half right!"

"Then why did you send them here, if it wasn't to find us?"

The Elder pulled back her hood and looked up at the two girls.

"You didn't think you could save the world just by beating up monsters, did you?"

"Not really, no."

"Ahahaha... ehehe... I guess it would be silly to say 'yes' now."

Shima stuck her palm to her forehead. "Tamaki..."

"While it is well and good that you've been protecting the Cure Lodestones from the monsters of the Field of Rivers, that fails to address the root of the problem. In order to keep the poison that afflicts our world from spreading into this one as well, you must use the Cure Lodestones to find and purify the lost treasures of the Field of Currents: the Beacon of Hope, and the Bell of Peace."

"The Bell of Peace?" "The Beacon of Hope?"

"They're the greatest treasures of our world-ton!"

"It's said that our King created them to spread peace and comfort throughout the entire Field of Currents-tun!"

"However, that was before the Queen of the Field of Rivers invaded with her army of monsters. Our treasures were tainted by her evil magic, and then they vanished. If the enemy finds them, they will certainly use them to spread hatred and poison throughout your world."

"So all we have to do is find them first, right? Well, as long as our progress isn't zero... actually, it kind of is right now, isn't it? I guess we've gotta start somewhere! Ahahahaha!"

"But where do we start? It's not like we can just go around asking people if they've seen a legendary treasure from another world."

"Of course not! Corrupted or not, the treasures should respond to passionate feelings. So long as they're nearby when that happens, your Cure Lodestones should react as well."

"Passionate feelings?" "Passionate feelings?" "Passionate feelings-tun?"

"A hot-blooded sense of justice-ton!"

Tamaki, Shima, and Tun each blushed faintly pink. Ton's white markings glowed energetically pink. The Elder rubbed her temples as if suppressing a headache.

"The Lodestones will react. Pay attention to them. You may now ask questions so long as they're not stupid ones."

Shima raised her hand.

"This seems really important. Why didn't you tell Ton and Tun before you sent them to find us?"

"There was no time-tun."

"The Field of Currents was already falling into darkness when she gave us the Cure Lodestones and shot us into space-ton."

The Elder nodded gravely.

"I would have liked to send someone more competent than Ton, or someone whose talents are more suited to this business than Tun. Our King died rather suddenly, and the treasures had been long since lost. These two were at hand, so I sent them to this world by the fastest possible method so they wouldn't fall asleep like everyone else."

Tamaki's stray hair wavered inquisitively.

"But why aren't you asleep, then?"

"Great obstinacy. And also black magic."

"Black magic?!" "Black magic?!"

"What's the matter-tun?"

"It's just a color-ton."

"Shut up, both of you."

"Yes-ton." "Okay-tun!"

"Stupid questions aside, did you want to ask me anything else?"

Shima pulled a white disc from her bookbag and handed it to the Elder.

"Every time we defeat a Kiraina, it leaves one of these behind. What are they?"

The Elder took the disc and looked at it closely.

"This is... I don't believe I've ever seen something like this. How exactly is it connected to the monsters?"

"Taeyn has a bunch of black ones with teeth on them that he attaches to stuff to make Kiraina," Tamaki answered, "And when we purify them with our love energy, they turn into this!"

The Elder nodded and slipped the disc into her robe.

"I see. I will have to look into this. Is that all?"

Shima thought for a moment.

"Where have you been living since you left that cave?"

"Okay, we're done here."

The Elder drew her hood back over her head, opened the door, and tottered down the hall.

* * *

"Hey, we should go do something."

Shima looked up from her book of star charts and glanced over at Tamaki.

"Like what?"

"I dunno. But my club isn't meeting today and we're supposed to be looking for those treasures. Aren't we just as likely to run into them doing something fun?"

"That doesn't sound like much of a plan."

Tamaki shrugged. "I guess we could stay here and throw a tea party..."

"A tea party-tun?"

"Good idea, right? We already have your teapot..."

"I haven't got enough tea for that-tun."

"We haven't got any snacks either-ton!"

"Oh." Tamaki frowned.

Shima closed her book and set it aside.

"That doesn't mean we can't have a tea party. Maybe not today, but why don't we go pick up some supplies?"

"Oh! That's a great idea!"

Shima turned to invite the two fairies, then saw that they were already climbing into the girls' bookbags.

"I guess we don't need to ask whether you're coming. Let's go!"

* * *

"This is blackmail!"

An outraged voice rang out as the two girls passed by the student council room. The door slammed open, and Yui stomped out and down the hall. Shima and Tamaki entered to see Koishi, a couple of other student council members, and the Crafts Club president.

"Hi Koishi. What was that about?"

"Community service," the girl from the Crafts Club answered. "Our Yui thinks she's a rebel, so I thought I'd lend Prez-tan a little influence."

"She's in the Crafts Club?"

"Nah, if I made her join my club, she'd make it her mission to waste our budget on something completely tasteless. She may be my cute little sister, but that second-year syndrome she's trying to cultivate is just too much hassle."

"What Miu means that she'd prefer to waste my time and her club's budget on the useless gadgets she's picked out. Isn't that right, Miu?"

"A 3D printer is not a useless gadget! It is bleeding-edge technology that will invigorate the Crafts Club like never before!"

"As you can see, the second-year syndrome affects both of them equally." Koishi sighed. "And I was already getting a headache..."

"Wrong! As a third-year student, I have naturally grown out of the second-year syndrome! By definition, any delusions I come up with must be the product of a superior third-year syndrome!"

"Superior... third-year... I've had it! I am not going to sit here and listen to you ramble on about your sibling rivalry of all things right now when we are swimming in paperwork! Get out! Everyone who is not on the student council, out of this room right now!"

* * *

Once they were out of the room, Miu turned towards Tamaki and Shima and bowed sharply.

"Sorry about that! Pushing her buttons is kind of my hobby, but it usually doesn't set her off like that."

Shima waved her off. "I'm sure it's not entirely your fault. I haven't seen her get angry like that in a long time. I wonder what happened?"

"It's probably because of the new principal. I haven't seen her yet, but it seems like she's making the student council do a lot of hard work."

Tamaki blinked. "There's a new principal? Why? What happened to the one we had?"

"Moved to France. Prez-tan just found out today."

Shima frowned. "France?! And at this time of year?"

"That'd be nice... I'd like to move to France..."

The redhead laughed and slapped Tamaki on the back.

"Haha! My thoughts exactly... I never did get your names."

"Yagami Shima." "Suou Tamaki."

"Suou... that would make you Suou-sensei's daughter, right? You don't look much like her."

"Ehehe... Rentarou's the one that looks like Mom. Me and Keiichi got most of our looks from Dad."

"Sounds like a pretty sweet deal, Tamacchi. Me and Yui, our parents are so ordinary we have to act crazy to make up for it."

Shima smiled. "So Koishi was right when she said you two think alike."

"The difference between my thought process and Yui's is the same as the difference between butter and margerine!"

"What's the difference?" Tamaki's stray hair wavered inquisitively.

"The difference is... that is to say... Anyway, it's not the same stuff!"

A loud gurgling sound suddenly emanated from inside Tamaki's bookbag. Miu glanced over in confusion.

"Did that just come from-"

"Ah!" Tamaki interjected. "All this talk of food sure is making me hungry! I could really go for some takoyaki about now!"

Shima blinked with surprise. "Takoyaki? That's kind of a specific craving."

"It's just a feeling I've been having since we fought that octo- Ow!"

Tamaki broke off her comment suddenly as Shima's elbow ground into her side.

"Let us never speak of that again."

"Ow... Okay."

Miu put her finger to her lips thoughtfully. "If it's takoyaki you're after, there's rumored to be a super tasty takoyaki truck somewhere near the center of town."

"Sounds interesting. Where is it at?"

"I've only heard the rumors myself. I was going to go looking later, after I close up the club room. Supposedly it's only going to be in town for yesterday and today."

"A challenge! Shima, let's go on a quest!"

Shima pressed her hand to her temple as if supressing a headache.

"Please, Tamaki. Don't call this a quest."

"Heh heh heh... Suou Tamaki!" Miu stopped walking suddenly and spread the fingers of her right hand over her face, then extended her right arm and pointed at Tamaki. "The quest to find the holy grail that is takoyaki! Do you accept it?!"

"Ooooh! I'll do it! Since I've already heard of it, that's one step towards finding it! And even one step means I can definitely do it! That's a Suou Tamaki guarantee!"

"Then go! In the name of Seaside Girls Jr. Academy and delicious takoyaki!"

Tamaki took off running down the hall.

"Yup. I've still got it!" Miu grinned at Shima as if she'd done her a favor.

"The holy grail that is takoyaki? I feel stupid just for having watched that."

* * *

Reflected in the windows of the shopping district, a man-like figure paced down the streets wearing a trenchcoat and a wide-brimmed hat. He seemed to be put off by the environs, though not disoriented. People nearby, even those deeply occupied with their own affairs, left a wide berth around him, on account of his continuous frustrated mutterings and his having the head and hooves of a horse.

"Curse that human castle. If not for those fortifications and their utterly incomprehensible warding system, I would be able to crush Pretty Cure- Not the point! It's the Cure Lodestones that I need! But still, there is the matter of that bizarre human castle. How can they insist that it is a school? And what manner of buildings are these here? Their height alone should be nearly unthinkable, and yet they lack both defensive and palatial attributes. Clearly, the strangeness of the humans is not limited to their castles."

He pulled a black disc from inside his coat and briefly contemplated its jagged grin.

"Perhaps I have been approaching this from the wrong direction. For a town this bizarre to exist, there must be some artifact that sustains it. If I could acquire such a wonder and make it into a Kiraina, even Pretty Cure should be unable to stand against it! But where to find such a thing?"

"To think that I'd just stumble across such a wonder! Today must be my lucky day!"

Taeyn turned and saw a brown-haired human girl half-towing, half-carrying some sort of wheeled contraption. It didn't look so special to him, but he decided to address the girl anyway.

"You there, I require information!"

She stopped and looked at him. From her confused expression, he could tell that she had been fooled by the human clothing he wore. All the better reason to get straight to the point.

"That device you have. What wondrous qualities does it possess?"

The girl posed with her hand covering her mouth.

"Are you sure you want to know?"

"Of course I want to know! That's why I asked!"

"Very well!" The girl leaned her machine against a wall and began to pontificate. "This is a miraculous engine that amplifies human power! Faster than the wind! More powerful than the waves! My encounter with it was surely the destiny written for me in the stars!"

Taeyn picked it up with one hand and looked it over carefully.

"So it has that kind of power? I'll go with that, then."

"Hey, you can't just take that! I saw it first!"

"Silence!" Taeyn shouted as he cast off his disguise. "I am a centurion of the Field of Rivers and seneschal of the Island Palace! No mere human can tell me what to do!"

The girl jumped back.

"You mean that isn't a mask? I thought you were just an ordinary weirdo... anyhow, give it back!"

Taeyn laughed. "You can come and get it after I use it to defeat Pretty Cure! If you can find me, that is!"

"At least let me watch!"

His equine features twisted into a very human-like scowl. "Are you insane?"

Taeyn turned away and rose slowly into the sky, the better to locate Pretty Cure and make use of his prize.

"Hey! That's not fair! You can't just fly away with my precious delusion!"

* * *

"Takoyaki... Takoyaki... Gonna get me some takoyaki..."

Tamaki skipped happily down the street as Shima followed behind with Ton and Tun. They'd actually stopped and shopped at a couple of places along the way, but that had done nothing to dull her anticipation of a special, time-limited snack.

"I've never had takoyaki before-ton!"

"I'm sure it'll be delicious-tun!"

"I just hope it's actually there. Sempai might have been messing with us."

"I'm sure she wouldn't prank us about delicious food, Shima! Come on!"

Shima shrugged, and kept walking.

"So this is where you were hiding, Pretty Cure! Feast your eyes upon the artifact with which I shall ensure your doom!"

Taeyn held his prize out so that it could be seen: A bicycle, the kind with a basket on the front and a little bell. Gold paint was flaking off the frame in several places, and it was obviously in no condition to be ridden.

Tamaki's stray hair wavered with confusion. "It looks like junk."

"Fools! I have it on reliable information that this is a great wonder of your human society! It draws on the power of the stars and surpasses the power of the wind and the waves!"

"I think you've got the wrong idea. How is a wrecked bicycle meant to be a wonder?" Shima asked.

"It's all rusted-tun."

"The front wheel's bent-ton."

"The drive chain is missing entirely."

Taeyn did a double take, suddenly noticing that the flaws Tamaki and the two fairies had pointed out.

"You're bluffing. The human girl I got this from spoke highly of its virtues! No mere human would have the audacity to lie to me!"

"It's a lemon," Shima replied. "You should return it."

"I will not be mocked! Let's go, Kiraina!"

Taeyn tossed the bicycle high into the air, then produced another black disc and hurled it so that it struck the bike just as it began to fall. As expected, the two objects merged, growing several times larger than the original bike. The bent wheel straightened out and gained a mouth full of very sharp teeth.

It landed on the ground perfectly upright and roared.

"KIRAINAAA!"

"Behold the wonder of your human city! Tremble before its burning hatred!"

"You'll need more than that to take on Pretty Cure-ton! A monster like that, I can handle myself-ton!"

Ton shouted a battle-cry and rushed at the bicycle monster, which reared, spun its front wheel threateningly, and then charged straight at the fairy. It ran him over and caught him in its teeth, but somehow he kept its jaws from closing and shouted his defiance even as the wheel kept spinning, propelling him forward along with it. It stopped at the end of the street and spat him into the air.

"Freedom!" The little red thing cried out, his eyes still spinning with vertigo. "I told you this one would be a pushover!"

"Kiraina!"

The monster reared up on its front wheel, then spun its body to strike the fairy with its rear wheel. Ton shot into the sky like a home run baseball, then vanished into the distance.

"Oh, Ton-sama! I'm going to go look for him-tun."

"Good idea. We'll take care of the monster."

Shima looked back at Tamaki, who held up her Lodestone reluctantly. "Because nobody else can, right?"

Tamaki nodded. "And because it's fun!"

"Let's just get this over with."

"PreCure Cross My Heart!" "PreCure Cross My Heart!"

A flash of light and a moment that was not a moment once again faded to reveal the transformed girls.

"Flying the flag of the whistling wind, Cure Breeze!"

"Flying the flag of the crashing waves, Cure Surf!"

"Joined together under the jolly roger of love, we will calm your hatred and steal your heart! Setting sail, Cross Heart Pretty Cure!"

* * *

On a street not far away, Yui ran in the direction that the horse-faced man had flown with her bike.

"Stop!"

She looked up to see a girl in a sleeveless white dress with a blue sash and opera gloves standing on top of a streetlight. Powder blue ringlet curls spilled over her shoulders and down her back.

"You must not go this way! Pretty Cure are fighting a monster!"

"Is the horse-faced guy there?"

The girl in white blinked. "You've met Taeyn?"

"He took something from me, and I'm getting it back!"

Yui started to head towards the battlefield again, so the girl in white jumped down from the light pole, landing in front of Yui with her arms spread wide.

"Please calm down! Whatever he took from you, is it really worth risking your life?"

"Like I care! If I don't go after it, my delusion will go to waste!"

"Another delusion?" The girl hesitated, and Yui took advantage of the chance to slip past her outstretched arms and dash down the street beyond.

* * *

"Kirainaaaa!"

The two magical girls jumped in opposite directions, dodging out of the path of the speeding bicycle monster. It spun around at the intersection, howled, and charged back towards Cure Surf just as her feet touched down on the ground. At the same time, Cure Breeze planted her feet against the third story wall of a skyscraper and launched herself across the monster's path.

"PreCure Kick!"

"Kiraina!"

The monstrous bicycle popped a wheelie and rotated it's elevated wheel so that its sharp teeth were pointed toward's Breeze's rapidly approaching body. The pink-haired Cure cried out in surprise and windmilled her arms, but was unable to change her trajectory.

A steel bench struck the monster from the side, which had been bolted to the sidewalk until Cure Surf ripped it free. Instead of falling into a serrated maw, Breeze's kick struck it in the jaw. As the creature tried to snap at her legs, she immediately started running along top of the wheel, which spun underneath her and kept trying to snap at her feet every time the mouth came around to the top.

"Kiraina, cease that nonsense before-"

Before Taeyn could finish his warning, Cure Surf shoved an uprooted light pole through the spokes of its front wheel. The sudden stop caught Cure Breeze by surprise. She stumbled headfirst toward the ground, then recovered into a handspring that put her feet on the ground next to her partner.

The monster fell forward so that it was once again balanced on both wheels, but the bent light pole stuck in its mangled front wheel completely arrested its movement. The two magical girls stood together and focused their power.

"The energetic love of the whistling wind! Breeze Color Charge!"

"The reliable love of the crashing waves! Surf Color Charge!"

"PreCure Colorful Heart Cross!"

The pink heart with its blue cross expanded and swallowed the Kiraina where it stood. It cried out in confusion, then its mouth twisted into something happier.

"Aye-Aye-Ai!"

Like the others, the monstrous form popped, leaving behind only the original wreck of a bike and a white disc marked with a picture of a wheel.

Taeyn looked down at the battlefield and snorted indignantly.

"Perhaps next time, I'll create a Kiraina that can actually follow simple instructions."

He sank into his portal, which became just an ordinary puddle of dirty water. Moments later, the torn up pavement, uprooted public bench, the mangled light pole, and all the other damage that the battle had done to the street reverted to how it was before.

An unusually conspicuous flash of light from down the road caught the Cures' attention, and they turned to look, seeing the approaching form of Watanabe Yui.

"Uh... Surf? When Taeyn said he took it from a human girl, do you think he meant her? How do we explain this?"

"We don't." Surf put her hand on Breeze's shoulder and turned to leave.

"But-"

"Trust me. It'll be better this way."

Breeze looked back at the approaching girl, then nodded reluctantly. With Cure Surf leading the way, they leapt to the top of the building and left the once again pristine battlefield behind.

* * *

Shima and Tamaki came around the corner and found Yui crouched over the wrecked bicycle. She seemed to be trembling, but from behind her it was impossible to tell guess whether it was because of anger, sadness, or something else. Struck by Tamaki's foot, a pebble skidded towards Yui, and her body tensed up.

"Watanabe-san? Did something happen to your bike?"

The brunette stood up slowly and shook her head. "...ain't my bike."

"Huh?"

She turned toward them with a weak smile. "It ain't my bike. I found it in the street and thought I could make a good delusion out of it, but stuff happened and now I've got a better idea!" Her smile became a smirk. "Wanna hear?"

Shima frowned. "You're going to tell us no matter what we say, aren't you?"

"It's not like you have to participate, Yagami. I'm sure I can find Pretty Cure without your help."

"Actually-" Tamaki caught herself and faked a cough. "I mean, aren't they an urban legend?"

Yui shrugged. "It's okay if you don't believe it. Wanting a piece of the hidden world probably isn't the safest delusion. If I ever see that horse-faced guy again..." She trailed off. "Say, what brings you two to this part of town, anyway? Window shopping?"

"Oh! I almost forgot about the takoyaki! We'd better hurry if we're gonna find it!"

"Honestly, Tamaki. I'm starting to doubt that this 'two-days only' takoyaki truck actually exists."

"It existed yesterday. If you don't mind hanging around a delusional crazy girl, I could show you the place."

* * *

From her vantage point atop a nearby building, the girl in white sighed with relief as she slipped a small wand with a heart-shaped light into her pocket. After the three girls were out of sight, she leapt from the building and landed lightly on the ground, then knelt beside the abandoned bicycle and rubbed its scratched and rusted frame with one hand.

"You certainly don't look like a treasure, do you? I'm sure it's been hard for you as well, but I know someone who can help. I think we can make a happy ending for both of you."

After looking around to see that nobody was watching, she carefully tucked the bicycle under her arm and vaulted high into the air.

* * *

The blonde waitress running the kitchen inside the takoyaki truck thanked the girls for their patronage, then proceeded to cook and serve up three dishes of takoyaki to Tamaki, two to Yui, and one to Shima. They took their food to the nearby tables and sat down.

"How can you two eat all that? Aren't you concerned about gaining weight?"

"Not really. I play basketball."

"I'm immune."

Shima clapped her palm to her forehead. "I'm sorry I asked."

"So how did you two end up hunting for this place? The food's great and all, but I didn't think the rumors going around school were such a big deal. I mean, who wants to go looking for takoyaki when they could be trying to meet Pretty Cure?"

Shima quickly swallowed what was in her mouth. "Well, for one thing, this takoyaki actually exists."

"You weren't so sure of that a few minutes ago."

"No, but even if this place weren't here, there are other places we could get snacks. Meeting a magical girl isn't like ordering food at a restaurant."

Yui waved her hand in the direction of the truck, where the girl with the blonde braids was serving a boy in an Overlook uniform. "You don't know she's not a magical girl."

"I'm sure she's just an ordinary girl like us."

"Besides, this was a quest!" Tamaki joined in, having finished her snack. "Miu-sempai told us this was the holy grail of takoyaki!"

"Hahaha! Holy grail! Only my sister would come up with something that silly! And you went for it?"

Tamaki shrugged. "It sounded like fun."

The boy approached the table, and waved to them. "Hey, I remember you. Kagura, right?"

Shima looked at him crossly. "Yagami. Yagami Shima."

"Oh. I thought the madame manager was your grandmother?"

"She is. That doesn't mean we have the same name."

"I. Am. An. Alien! Human names are haaaard!" The boy said, swinging his arms wildly in a comical dance, finishing with his snack tray flourished at the 12 o'clock position and his takoyaki in the air above that. "Oops!" He scrambled to catch his food as it descended, catching each of the half-dozen octopus balls with his bare hands, then quickly releasing them back into the tray. "Ow ow ow... those things are hot..."

Tamaki choked on her food, smacked herself in the chest a couple of times, swallowed, and started laughing hysterically.

"Nice delusion. Seven of ten." Yui popped the last two of her takoyaki into her mouth.

Shima sighed. "I guess I'll introduce you. This is Watanabe Yui, and the hyena disguised as a beautiful girl is Suou Tamaki. They're my classmates at Seaside. This guy joined the staff at Nanohanasou recently, and today was his first day at Overlook." Shima paused. "And I forgot to get his name."

"Andou Yuusaku."

"Now that I think of it, could it be this is the first real meal you've had all day? There's no way that stuff I saw you grab this morning was edible."

Yuusaku shrugged. "Decent meal as far as I'm concerned, but since I've been told you humans prefer to subsist on this sort of thing instead, I thought I might try it." He popped a takoyaki into his mouth. "Not bad at all."

Yui stood up. "Well, it's nice to meet you and all, but this is where I split."

Shima looked down at her empty tray, and got up from the table as well. "I suppose we should get going, too. I don't know about the rest of you, but I've got homework to take care of."

Tamaki's eyes widened. "Math homework. Mind if I do it at your place, Shima?"

"Math? Oh, right, Suou-sensei's subject. I hope your impression of me has improved some, since we're going to be hanging out more in the future." Without waiting for a response, Yui walked away.

Shima looked back at Yuusaku, who was staring intently at his remaining takoyaki and several condiment packets.

"Sorry we can't stick around, but..."

"Not a problem. This is gonna take a while."

They walked off together in the direction of the inn.

* * *

"Next time!"

"There's something suspicious about that takoyaki stand..."

"Shima, the word you want is delicious! Their takoyaki is awesome!"

"No, I mean there's something off about it!"

"Of course they had to take off! That waitress is about our age. There's no way she can afford to transfer schools every time they need fresh ingredients!"

"That's not what I meant! There's something about her I can't quite put my finger on!"

"Well if you wanted to stay in touch, why didn't you ask for her phone number?"

"I'm not talking about getting a date!"

"Next time, X-Heart PreCure: Congratulations? The Seaside Girls Jr. Academy Astronomy Club!"

"What?! Tamaki, we can't do an episode about the club!"

"Why not?"

"Well... that is... we just can't, okay?"

"Come to think of it, I've been up to the planetarium lots of times now, but I haven't met any of your club members yet. Are they all really shy?"

"Tamaki, about the club..."


	6. Congratulations, Astronomy Club!

"The Elder from the Field of Currents visited us at school and told us how their homeland was destroyed. She also wants us to find two treasures called the Beacon of Hope and the Bell of Peace, which are said to react to passionate feelings... but somehow I don't think it's going to be all that easy.

"We also ended up spending some time with another girl from our class. Yui is a little strange, and she seems determined to get involved with Pretty Cure! I feel like keeping this a secret is about to get really challenging..."

* * *

_X-Heart PreCure!_

_Episode 06: Congratulations? The Seaside Girls Jr. Academy Astronomy Club!_

* * *

A blue-white sun shone down from a cloudless yellow sky. The earth below shimmered in the heat, and the rivers flowing across it seethed and steamed. The sandy bank was as white as the waters themselves, flat and featureless from the edge of the water to the white marble of the castle's foundations. The walls were tall and forbidding, with narrow windows and jagged parapets.

It was not entirely a fortress. Above the defensive battlements, and well inside the perimeter walls, the windows were great and many, built to allow the light of day into the royal court. In all, it was a functional stronghold that made only reasonable concessions in the name of royal opulence. The philosophy of its construction was something that Taeyn understood, and as he paced back and forth before a vacant alabaster throne that was many times his size, he nonetheless drew some small comfort from the familiar environs.

"Honorable Centurion looks troubled."

Taeyn looked up to see a grotesque figure sitting on the throne's armrest. Its head, which comprised most of its body, was mostly covered by a white hood and mask that left only its lidless eyes exposed. The spindly arms and legs that extended from its head were also clothed in white.

"Pira Clan. You would not dare dishonor my Queen's throne if she were still among us!"

"Many things would be different if they were not as they are. Such is the wisdom of the Great Amazonya."

"You impertinent dog!" Taeyn flew up from the floor to face the creature directly.

Its features shifted under the mask, and its raspy voice took on a distinctly sardonic tone. "Pira Harbinger is many things, but mammal is not one of them."

"Unless you state your business this very instant, you will also be a corpse!"

"It is the bidding of the Great Amazonya that Harbinger should ask about Honorable Centurion's hunt for the Cure Lodestones."

"That is not your master's concern."

"Honorable Centurion's prowess is known to the Great Amazonya. If Honorable Centurion has not retrieved them by now, there must be a great obstacle."

"Pretty Cure!" Taeyn grabbed the creature by its hood, heaved it over his shoulder, and threw it to the ground. "Tell your master that he is not to interfere! I will capture the Cure Lodestones with my own hands!"

The face behind the mask remained inscrutable. "Harbinger only carries the message. It is for the Great Amazonya to determine what will be done." The creature bent its slender legs in a mock bow, then vanished in a cloud of steam.

* * *

A cool breeze wafted down from the mountains in the early morning. The sun had barely risen high enough to be visible over the rooftops of the houses downhill. The morning heat and the sea breeze that would follow it had yet to manifest.

"I love how your world's sun moves in the sky-tun."

Shima looked down at the fairy, whose head and body were sticking out of her bookbag. "Is it different in the Field of Currents?"

"Almost everything is different, but I think that's particularly neat-tun. Back home, the lights stayed mostly in one place-tun."

"Tun, Shima, good morning-ton!"

The other fairy's cheerful greeting rang out in stark contrast to the scowling face of the approaching girl whose bookbag he was hanging out of.

"Ton-sama and Tamaki-chan, good morning-tun!"

Shima glanced around quickly, then looked back to the fairies. "Couldn't you two be a little quieter? What if somebody heard you?"

"Then we improvise-ton! I'm the mightiest lanternfish warrior in the Field of Rains, and Tun... um... she can't fight at all, but she makes delicious tea-ton!"

"Tamaki, you live with him. Couldn't you back me up?"

"Too sleepy right now. Anyway, isn't the real secret... you know?" Tamaki waved her phone, along with the Cure Lodestone dangling from it, in Shima's general direction.

"I guess that's true. Why are you out this early, anyhow? Koishi asked me to meet her before school, but we don't have to be in class for over an hour yet."

"Morning practice. Mother won't let me skip. I joined the basketball club because it didn't have morning practice."

"Wasn't it because you love basketball-ton?"

Tamaki glanced down at the fairy, while waving her hand in the air dismissively. "It's against my nature to love anything that happens in the morning before eight."

"Yo, ShimaTama!"

As the fairies quickly ducked back into hiding, the girls looked to the source of the shout and saw Yui and Himeka approaching from a cross street.

"Good morning, you two." Shima paused. "What was that weird greeting about? ShimaTama?"

The brunette drew back in mock astonishment. "It's not TamaShima, is it? ...though I guess that could be interesting too."

"If there's meant to be a special meaning to that, please spare me the details." Shima rubbed her temples with her fingers.

Yui jerked her head as if she'd been struck. "Now that was painfully snippy. Mornings not your thing, Yagami?"

"Mornings shouldn't be anybody's thing." Tamaki yawned.

"I can get behind that." Yui shrugged. "I'm still in trouble with the student council, or I'd be in bed right now myself. Though I am a bit curious what they want with Himeka."

Shima glanced over at Himeka. "They asked you to come early and didn't say why?"

"They had me fill out so many forms when I transferred... I'm sure I got something wrong..."

"It's that shady Miss President!" Yui clutched her fist dramatically. "She's up to something! I just know it!"

Tamaki yawned again. "So is badmouthing people in front of their family what you're calling a delusion this week, or did you just forget?"

"Is it too late to apologize?"

Shima shook her head. "Actually, I agree with you. There's one or two things that still don't add up, but I've got a pretty good idea of what my cousin is scheming."

As the quartet passed through the academy's gates, Tamaki split off and turned toward the gymnasium, only to collide almost immediately with Koishi's outstretched arm.

"Good morning, everybody! Suou-san, if you would please come with us?"

"Outta my way, starfish. I need to get to the locker room and give my captain a good... what's it called? Mutiny?"

"I don't think you'll find anyone there. One of the reasons we're meeting this early is because the basketball team doesn't."

"That doesn't make sense. Mom got me up early for club activities, and it's not like I'm in any other clubs."

Koishi grinned. "That's what you think."

* * *

As the girls entered the planetarium, Koishi went immediately to the whiteboard, where she wrote "CONGRATULATIONS, ASTRONOMY CLUB!" in large letters. The other girls took seats in the first tier, except for Shima, who remained standing with her arms crossed.

"Can we have an explanation now?"

"You were taking too long to gather members for your club, so I made some arrangements myself. All of us are now founding members of the Astronomy Club."

Tamaki looked up from resting her head the back of her chair. "Shima, weren't you already president of the astronomy club?"

Shima avoided her gaze. "Technically, I'm still gathering members to start the club. Koishi pulled some strings to let me use the planetarium."

Himeka raised her hand. "I didn't sign up. I haven't even visited any clubs yet."

"Officially, you have." Koishi produced a pair of forms with the pair's names on them. "It's just that I had you sign before I printed the forms."

"Ah! I remember that!" "So that's why you had me sign that blank piece of paper!"

"Koishi, that's dishonest! I'm not going to force everyone to join the club just because it would be convenient for me!"

"You don't need to. I already have. At least half of us would have joined willingly if you'd just asked... I just expedited things a little."

"If it makes you feel better, I was just blackmailed."

Koishi spun around to address Yui. "That was a legitimate disciplinary- Why are you sitting like that?"

Yui, who was laying down with her back flat on the seat of her chair and her legs hanging over the back, stuck out her tongue and made no move to correct her posture. "Because I can."

"I can't deal with this right now." Koishi turned back towards Shima. "I'm sorry. I lost my train of thought."

"I think I've got the picture. Basically, you tricked or coerced everyone except the two of us, and you think that makes us a real club."

Koishi produced an official-looking paper. "Documents create their own reality, y'know? We have a club charter, so as far as the academy is concerned, the five of us are a club now."

"Give me that! This says... it's a letter of marque?"

"It's our club charter. The new principal is a little... eccentric."

"I don't like the sound of that. It's not like we could become actual pirates."

"She isn't that crazy... I think. It might be her idea of a joke? In any case, the Astronomy Club is a real thing now, we have permission to use the planetarium as our headquarters, and you get all the perks of being the club captain."

"Captain?" Shima looked over the document again. "I guess I am, huh? Then as captain... I'm suspending your club membership until further notice."

"Oh, you can do that?" Tamaki's stray hair wavered inquisitively.

"I just did."

"Well, then. I'll leave you alone for now, but don't think that this is over." Koishi turned and stormed out of the room.

* * *

"...and now we have a segment proportional to the product of the radius and the square root of pi. We then construct a segment of equal length perpendicular to it, thereby squaring the circle in only two-hundred seventy-seven easy steps! This will be on the test."

Shima looked like she was paying attention to Suou-sensei's lecture, but Himeka couldn't help worrying. She was gripping her pencil very hard, had torn her notes twice already, and she looked as angry as she had before school.

What if this was the start of a lifelong feud between family members? Himeka felt like she ought to do something, but she wasn't sure what.

Looking at the others didn't help. Yui was scribbling pictures of magical girls in her notebook, and Tamaki appeared to be taking diligent notes. Or sleeping. Or both.

Himeka looked down at her own notes, which had very little to do with math. "What if I'm the only one who noticed?" Underlined. "What if it's just my nature to choke at the critical moment?" Double underlined. She let her head fall to the top of her desk and sighed.

"Hirouin, stop sleeping! Step up here and solve this problem on the whiteboard!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

* * *

Shortly after school let out for the day, the four active members of the Astronomy Club had gathered again in the planetarium.

"You know, you three don't have to come if you don't want to."

Tamaki shrugged. "It's not like that. I mean, I'm still going to practice in a few minutes, but that doesn't mean you don't have my support. I'm more surprised that Yui came."

"Eh, I figure I should at least show my face." Yui waved her hand dismissively. "Himeka's here, and it's not like I'm not all for anyone who has a beef with Miss President. But I've got too much going on right now to sit around drinking tea and staring at the ceiling, so I'm gonna take off now."

"Drinking tea? Yui, I didn't bring any tea! Why didn't you tell me?"

"Hehe... You're the best, Himeka. Wanna skip with me? We could look for that girl who kept me from meeting Pretty Cure last week! I have the feeling that she might be the key to everything... is this week's delusion."

"Um... I think I'll stay here."

"Okay. Ciao!"

Himeka watched Yui leave with a concerned look on her face, then got up and walked toward where Shima was sitting.

"Captain..."

"Call me Shima." Shima didn't look up from the book she was studying. "I'm sure she's not going to actually meet any urban legends."

"What do you mean?"

"Our Shima doesn't believe Pretty Cure actually exists." Tamaki answered, having changed into her basketball jersey. "And even if they do, she's not going to find them running around town."

Himeka nodded. "Or Misty Brilliant."

"Who?"

"Ah... The person Yui was talking about just now, who stopped her from meeting Pretty Cure... Um... I heard that was her name?"

"That's news to me. What do you think, Shima?"

"Sounds made up to me. I think Watanabe-san just doesn't want to admit she's running around aimlessly for no reason."

"Oh." Himeka looked a bit disappointed, but recovered her determination a moment later. "But that's not what I wanted to ask about, Captain Shima! It's about Miss President! I think that you should make up with her! Family members shouldn't fight with each other!"

"You want me to make up with that... that..." Shima had slumped in her seat so that her face was hidden behind her book, but her body was clearly trembling. "She's the one in the wrong! She just goes and does whatever she wants without asking anybody's opinion!"

"But-"

"It's out of the question! What business is it of yours, anyway?"

Himeka shrank back from Shima's outburst and tried to think of a response, but was distracted when Tamaki tapped her on the shoulder and pulled her into the hall.

"You're an only child, ain't ya?"

"Yes, it's just me and grandpa at home. But how did you know?"

"Because nobody but an only child would try to get involved in a sibling quarrel." Tamaki grinned. "It may look bad, but they'll work it out themselves in no time. That's a Tamaki-chan guarantee!"

"But... I still want to help. What can I do?"

"You don't have to do anything. If you hang around and do club stuff, I'm sure that'll be enough." Tamaki started to walk away, then turned and flashed a peace sign. "Gotta go practice! Seeya!"

Himeka watched as Tamaki bolted down the hall and out of sight.

"But I still don't have any tea..."

* * *

As a particular brunette shot out of the Seaside Academy gates on her peculiar and improbable mission, she passed a handful of boys in the gakuran of the nearby boys' school. Neither she nor they took any note of the other, and moments later she had passed out of sight, while they continued down the hill.

Near the rear of the group, a boy with dark blue hair addressed one of his companions. "Suou, I thought you said this was the Literature Club."

"And we are." The white-haired boy responded. "It's just that our activities also include mahjong, photography, rock-climbing, and going out for ramen."

"Ramen that is all the way at the bottom of this hill."

"Andou, I realize you're new in town, but seriously, you'll understand once you taste it."

"Pardon me, gentlemen, but could you be so kind as to give an old lady some assistance?"

The group turned to look at the woman who had addressed them. She was white haired and wore a dark blue womens business suit. Additionally, she wore rings on several of her withered fingers and a necklace with a bright yellow gemstone set into it.

"What exactly do you need?"

The woman led them around a corner and pointed out a huge iron cauldron, easily chest high on any of the boys. "I need this brought up the hill. That shouldn't be a problem for young folks like yourselves, right?"

"You gotta be kidding, lady!" The leader of the boys avoided her gaze. "That thing is huge!"

"Oh my, that won't do!" The woman covered her mouth with one hand, and held the yellow jewel out before them. It glowed brightly, as if lit from within. "I would be greatly troubled if you were to disobey."

The boys made no further complaint, and instead took up positions around the cauldron and began to haul it up the hill. In each of their eyes, the reflection of the yellow jewel continued to glow.

Except for one.

* * *

With his arms crossed over his chest, Taeyn hovered high in the air above Academy. In the manner that was becoming distressingly routine, he observed the situation below.

"Pretty Cure... If not for them, I should never have spent more than a few hours in this land of madness. At this rate, I may very well go mad myself."

As he watched, the long, dark hair of Cure Breeze's human form could be seen running across the grounds.

"Whatever madness awaits, the Cure Lodestones will be mine!" He looked around quickly, and his gaze fell upon a large black cauldron being carried by several young humans. "That will do nicely!"

* * *

When Taeyn dropped down from the sky, splitting the ground with his hooves, he immediately commanded the attention of everyone nearby. Before he said a single word, the old woman had already shoved the glowing jewel into her pocket. Her mesmerized thralls immediately started to come out of their daze.

"Leave this and run, boys."

As she ran towards the school building, the horse-headed man reared his head and shouted. "Yes! Run away like the weak humans you are! My business here is only with Pretty Cure! Let's go, Kiraina!"

He held up a black disc embossed with a grinning array of jagged teeth, then tossed it at the cauldron. It struck home, and within moments, the cauldron had grown into a gigantic iron vat, with long arms, several short legs, and a grin that resembled the business end of a wood chipper.

The boys hesitated, awestruck.

"What on Earth is that thing?" "How did we get here?"

"Never mind that! Look at where we are! If we don't get out of here fast, we're almost better off getting eaten by the monster!"

Most of the boys scattered towards the academy gates, but the Suou boy stood and stared as the monster lumbered towards the open doors of the gymnasium, where Tamaki could be seen having a hushed conversation with an object in her hand.

"Tama-nee, stop playing with your phone and run!"

* * *

Back in the planetarium, Shima slipped her phone back into her pocket and checked to see that Himeka was still occupied. Fortunately, the green-haired girl was still looking at the book of star charts Shima had loaned her. Making sure to block the view inside, Shima opened the cabinet under the sink and whispered to its inhabitants.

"Sorry to ask so suddenly, but can I borrow your teapot, Tun?"

"It's no trouble at all-tun!"

"Thank you, Tun. I need to be out of the room for a bit, so if anyone finds you, just pretend to be stuffed animals or something."

Taking the teapot and a hot plate, Shima closed the cabinet and forced herself to smile as she called out to the other girl.

"Hey, I just remembered we have a teapot! You wanted to have tea, right?"

Himeka looked up from tracing a constellation with her finger, then nodded hesitantly.

"I guess so? Even though you said it isn't necessary, I still think it would be fun to have tea with everyone while we do club stuff." She paused. "Are you okay? You look kind of..."

"I'm fine! Everything is fine!" As she spoke, Shima put the tea on, then practically dashed towards the door. "If you don't mind, I'd like you to keep an eye on the tea while it heats up, and I'm going to go see if I can find some snacks to go with it! Be back soon!"

* * *

"Kiraina!"

The huge black pot lumbered toward Tamaki, who pocketed her phone and began running along the outside of the gymnasium and further into the school grounds. The creature turned to follow... sluggishly, with a strained groan as it did so.

"Don't tell me... You can't go any faster than that?"

"Kirainaaa!"

The monster howled in protest, and doubled its efforts. Oily black sweat rolled down the sides of its body, but it still couldn't manage more than a fast walk.

"Wow, that's actually kind of sad."

The monster howled indignantly, reaching for her with one of it's long arms.

"Whoa! Not good! I'm sorry I made fun of you!"

Tamaki evaded its grasp with a burst of speed. The other arm stretched out toward her as well, but stopped short. A rock pinged off it's metal body on the other side. Then another.

"Leave my sister alone, you monster!"

The monster turned slowly toward the young man. As it did, Tamaki ran into the school building.

"Better make this quick. Shima said she'd meet me at... hm... so I need to go this way!"

Tamaki ran through the hallway, turning a corner and bounding up half a flight of stairs. She nearly collided with Shima, who was descending with similar urgency.

"Tamaki, you got away?"

"My little brother covered for me! We've gotta get back there and save him!"

Shima nodded.

"PreCure Cross My Heart!" "PreCure Cross My Heart!"

The world fell away as they transformed into the legendary warriors against the usual backdrop of expansive sea and starlit sky.

"Flying the flag of the whistling wind, Cure Breeze!"

"Flying the flag of the crashing waves, Cure Surf!"

"Joined together under the jolly roger of love, we will calm your hatred and steal your heart! Setting sail, Cross Heart Pretty Cure!"

Cure Breeze hesitated, looking down, then up the stairs. "Do you think it would be faster to go up to the roof?"

Cure Surf shook her head. "I know a better shortcut."

* * *

"This doesn't seem hard at all... but I wonder how I'll know when it's done?"

The teapot was blue with a white heart on the side. Himeka watched it diligently as it sat on the hot plate. A small wisp of steam wafted up from the opening, followed quickly by a sharp blast of steam and a loud whistle.

"Oh! That must be it! I'd better do something!"

She got up and moved to take the teapot off the heat, but then she suddenly staggered. She reeled for several moments, leaning against the cabinets as she clutched her head in her hands, but then she steadied herself. It would have been clear to anyone watching that she was still in pain, but she had recovered enough to be aware of her surroundings.

"Oh my... I knocked over the tea. I'd better clean up this mess."

* * *

Back outside, the monster had turned its terrible grimace towards Rentarou. His attempts to flee were cut off by the creature's long arms, but its attempt to grab him was hampered by tiny black darts. Once, and then a second time, it recoiled in pain instead of capturing the boy with its grasping hands.

Then the side of the school building exploded outward, raining steel and concrete onto the ground behind the monster, along with Cure Surf, who landed gracefully on her feet among the debris, then ran her hand through her hair with a flourish.

"There! One shortcut!"

Cure Breeze looked down from the hole in the wall, then jumped down next to her partner.

"Don't you think that's going a little too far, Surf?"

"Not really?" She pointed at the monster, which was still menacing Rentarou. "That's what we need to worry about."

The girls charged into action, with Breeze making a beeline for the monster and Surf following close behind. The Kiraina remained focused on the boy, and it winced in pain as a third dart distracted it from trying to grab him.

As Surf broke off her charge and leapt away from the monster at an angle, Breeze sped up, slid underneath the monster's belly feet first, then stood and slapped the monster's giant hand away as it descended to grab at Rentarou. Without needing to be told, the boy thanked her and ran for the school gates.

"What do you think you're doing, Kiraina? We, Pretty Cure, are your opponents! Right, Surf?"

Suddenly realizing that Cure Surf was nowhere near the monster, Breeze looked rapidly around in search of her friend.

"Kiraina?" The Kiraina moaned in confusion and followed her gaze to Cure Surf, who was standing at the base of a large oak tree.

"Surf!" "Kiraina?"

"Just a minute!"

Surf punched the tree with her full force, splitting it up the trunk. A moment later, a white-haired boy wearing a black suit fell to the ground at her feet. A similarly black blowgun clattered out of the tree next to him.

"What are you doing, Pretty Cure! You're supposed to be fighting the monster, not me!"

"Taeyn just makes those things because he's trying to get our Cure Lodestones. There's no way that's more suspicious than a boy hiding in a tree in the middle of a girls' school!"

Cure Breeze nodded sagely, as did the monster beside her. "It's hard to get much more suspicious than that, really." "Kiraina."

"You think this was my idea?" The boy in black grabbed his blowgun and stood up. "I was only here in the first place because that witch mesmerized my friends!"

"Witch?" "What witch?" "Kiraina?"

Taeyn groaned and covered his face with his palm. "What does that have to do with anything? Kiraina, grab Cure Breeze while she's still distracted!"

"Kirainaaa!"

The cauldron monster grabbed Breeze with one giant hand and lifted her into the air, pinning her arms to her sides as she struggled to free herself.

"Breeze!" "Cure Breeze!"

The young man brought the blowgun to his lips, only to have it yanked from his hands by Cure Surf.

"What are you thinking? You could hit Cure Breeze!"

"And I suppose you've got a better idea?"

Surf paused, then looked up at the oak tree she'd split in half. "As a matter of fact, I do."

Bracing her feet against the ground, Surf wrapped her arms around the trunk of the tree to where it split down the middle, and pulled. The wood creaked, then splintered, then tore free of the ground. She staggered back a couple of steps before getting her feet steady, then charged with her half a tree held straight up, and swung it down towards the big black cauldron as she approached. It struck the rim and tipped into it, with the upper branches quickly falling into the basin and the trunk rising high into the air as Surf let go.

"You call that a plan, Pretty Cure?" Taeyn pointed at Surf mockingly. "All you've done is throw away your weapon!"

The boy in black ran forward until he was standing next to her. "I hate to say it, but he's right. What was that supposed to do?"

She smiled. "Just watch."

The tree trunk continued to rise into the air as the branches fell into the pot monster until it was straight up in the air, but failed to stop at the apex and began descending. As it did, the branches caught in the cauldron and tilted it with them, upending the monster with a thunderous clang. As the shock of the impact spread into the monster's limbs, Cure Breeze burst free of it's grasp.

"That was amazing, Surf! If it was anyone else, I'd be surprised it worked!"

"It shouldn't have worked!" Taeyn shouted, tearing at his frothing mane with his hands. "This is completely unfair!"

"Kiraina!" The monster wailed plaintively.

"Hush, you." Breeze touched her finger to the monster's big black cheek. "The legendary warriors are gonna make it all better."

Cure Surf ran to stand next to Breeze so that their shoulder touched, then they clasped their hands together. Breeze held out her left hand, and glowing pink energy gathered into her palm as she shouted.

"The energetic love of the whistling wind! Breeze Color Charge!"

Cure Surf held out her right hand, and glowing blue energy gathered into her palm as she called out as well.

"The reliable love of the crashing waves! Surf Color Charge!"

Smiling up at the immobilized and distressed Kiraina, they brought their free hands together into a heart shape.

"PreCure Colorful Heart Cross!"

The energy mixed into a much larger heart swirling their two colors, which expanded into a great pink heart with a blue cross mark that opened and enveloped the giant cauldron and the tree stuck in it as well. "Kiraina?" It whined weakly, then started to glow a soft white color. Its maw closed briefly, then broke into a warm and joyful grin.

"Aye-Aye-Ai!"

Then it popped, its tremendous bulk vanishing like chaff in the wind. The cauldron that it had originally been reappeared and tipped back onto its feet, and a white disc emblazoned with the image of a soda bottle fell to the ground at their feet. Over where the remaining half a tree stood, a similar white light wafted down from the highest leaves to the roots, then coalesced back into the whole tree as it had been before the fight.

Taeyn turned his back to the two heroes and sank into his portal, muttering to himself. "My life made sense once. I wonder where I went wrong..." As he departed, the wrecked wall of the school returned to its undamaged state, as did the rest of the damage caused by the battle.

"Okay!" Surf rubbed her hands together intently. "Now to deal with that- Oh. Of course he'd run away."

* * *

Since basketball practice had been effectively canceled, Tamaki walked with Shima back to the planetarium. The conversation naturally turned towards their most recent battle.

"There's no way that guy wasn't up to something shady." Shima clenched one hand into a fist. "We should search for cameras!"

Tamaki shrugged. "He didn't look like a photographer to me. More like, if you were Sailor Moon..."

Shima grabbed Tamaki by the shoulders and shook her vigorously. "Don't say that! Don't even think it! Not even as a joke!"

"Okay! Okay!"

Shima released Tamaki and started walking again. "Besides, if one of us were going to be Sailor Moon, it'd have to be you."

Tamaki paused, her stray hair bobbing languidly as she pondered. "Nah. He's not my type."

They opened the planetarium door and stepped into an entirely surprising scene. There was tea spilled on top of the cabinets, which had been opened, and Himeka was holding Ton and Tun in an energetic embrace.

"Welcome back! I spilled the tea and was looking for something too clean it up with, and look what was in the cabinets! Aren't they adorable?"

At a glance, the two fairies seemed to be playing possum. Tun looked entirely relaxed in the green-haired girl's arms. Ton, on the other hand, was doing everything he could to mouth words to the two magical girls without being noticed by the one who had him in her clutches.

_Help!_

Tamaki was the first to come to his rescue. "Oh... Those are... the club mascots! That one's called Ton, and that one is Tun. We usually hide them in the cabinets because they'll be confiscated if the teachers see them!"

"This is a thing that has actually happened." Shima added weakly.

"Really?" Himeka put Tun down and held Ton up in front of her face. "But they're so cute!"

"We got scolded for bringing 'unnecessary things' to school, but we can't leave them at home either, so we have to be sneaky about it."

"You had a good hiding place, too." Himeka closed her eyes and nuzzled her face into Ton's belly, to his obvious discomfort. "I never would have looked there if I hadn't accidentally made a mess. Oh, that reminds me! Did you find the snacks you went looking for?"

Shima blinked, then started to make an excuse. "Snacks? Oh, snacks! I... well, that is..."

"What Shima's trying to say is that I kind of shanghaied her in the hall. Sorry about that."

Himeka frowned and put the fairy down. "It's okay. I think I ruined most of the tea, anyway."

"Don't feel too bad. If we're going to be in a club together, there will be plenty of chances to make more." Shima adjusted her glasses. "At this rate, getting to actually have that tea party might become an interesting challenge."

"Huh?" Tamaki's stray hair bobbed inquisitively.

"We can't very well have a tea party without our club mascots, right? But we can't let them be seen by the teachers either."

The door into the hallway opened, prompting Shima and Himeka to quickly hide the fairies behind their back. Koishi entered holding up a small bundle.

"Good afternoon, pirates! Want some cookies?"

"Cookies?" "Cookies?" "Cookies-ton?"

All eyes centered on the last voice, which had come from the mostly red fairy hidden behind Shima's back. There was only one thing to do. As her face flushed with embarrassment, Shima pulled Ton from behind her back, held him up, and faked his voice as well as she could.

"I was just thinking that I could use some cookies-ton!"

The purple-haired girl blinked in surprise. "What... well, if you're showing off bits of your puppet show now, does that mean I'm unbanned?"

Shima put the fairy down and took one of the cookies. "Well, you did bring us snacks... Where did these come from, anyway?"

"The Cooking Club left them with the Student Council, but there's just too many. I thought I'd share them with some of the nearby clubs."

"You have a strange definition of nearby."

Himeka giggled, drawing their attention.

"What?" "Did we do something funny?"

"Oh, I was just thinking that the Tamaki-chan guarantee was surprisingly reliable."

Tamaki stopped eating long enough to flash a V sign. "Of course it is!"

* * *

"I'm home!"

Closing the door behind her, Tamaki stopped only long enough to kick off her shoes and slip her feet into a pair of pink slippers before heading into the family room. Her little brother was already present, seated at the family PC with a carton of grape juice, looking through some website or other.

The TV was playing what seemed to be a game show, in which a pink-haired girl was trying to guess at objects based on just their shadows. It looked simple, but apparently she was doing rather poorly. Tamaki picked up the remote and turned it off.

"I could have been watching that," her brother commented, then took a swig of juice. "Oh, and welcome home."

"You're drinking straight from the carton? Ren, that's disgusting!"

Rentarou scowled. "So what? I had kind of a stressful afternoon, in case you forgot."

Tamaki paused, recalling his involvement in the battle earlier. "Oh. I guess I did disappear on you there. Thanks for being brave for me, little bro."

"Hmph. It was just luck that I was there at all, so if that happens again you'll have to be less of a ditz."

Tamaki scratched her head awkwardly. "Even if you say that... Why were you at my school, anyway?"

"Dunno, really." He shrugged. "Some old lady was asking the guys and me to move some heavy stuff, next thing I knew there we were."

"That's weird..."

"I know, right? But I guess weird things just happen sometimes."

"I guess. What are you looking at? You've had your eyes glued to that computer since I got here."

"I'm looking up cameras. I've been saving up my allowance for a while now, but that thing today made me feel like I should finally get serious about it. Nobody's going to believe that I actually met the magical girls everyone's been talking about, but if I take pictures of them next time, that'd be a whole 'nother story."

He continued to stare at the screen as he had the entire time, but if he had turned around at that moment, the panicked expression on his sister's face might have given away everything.

* * *

"Next time!"

"You know, I'm pretty sure what your mother taught us today isn't actually possible."

"I know, right? I keep thinking like I'll wake up one day, and everyone will tell me that math was just a big nasty prank from the get-go!"

"I wouldn't go that far..."

"Really? Shima, you can't tell me there's nothing bad that you'd like to just wake up from!"

"...my parents..."

"What's that about your parents? Shima, are we finally going to meet them?!"

"Next time, X-Heart PreCure: Nanohanasou in trouble! Holidays are a battlefield!"

"Hey! You just acknowledged that we're on TV! I thought you'd never do that!"

"I did no such thing. How many times do I have to tell you that we aren't?"

"You announced the episode title! That totally counts!"

"Are you sure you've been getting enough sleep?"

"I never get enough sleep! I could sleep all winter and all spring and it still wouldn't be enough!"

"And that's why you're dreaming. See?"

"Oh! That makes perfect sense! Wait... weren't we talking about something else a moment ago?"

"I'm sure it was nothing important."


	7. Nanohanasou In Trouble!

"I finally got to meet Shima's club members, and it turned out it was us! Actually, it turned out that there wasn't a club and her cousin Koishi signed us all up. Shima was mad about that for a while, but they made up and everything's cool between them now.

"We also found a boy hiding in a tree at school. He said he was chasing a witch, but we're pretty sure he was up to no good. If someone like that saw us transform, it'd be a total disaster!

"And now my little brother wants to get pictures of Pretty Cure. Keeping this a secret might actually be really hard..."

* * *

_X-Heart PreCure!_

_Episode 07: Nanohanasou In Trouble! Holidays Are A Battlefield!_

* * *

"Tamaki! Rentarou! Breakfast is almost ready!"

"You don't have to shout, Mom." Tamaki ambled into the dining room, dressed in a diagonally striped blouse and knee-length pink skirt. Her older brother was already seated at the table and studying from a textbook, and their mother could be seen in the kitchen stirring a pot of soup.

"Rentarou!"

"Okay, okay! I'm up! Seriously!" The youngest of the three siblings made his own entrance into the dining room, yawned, and sat down at the table. Unlike most mornings, he didn't reek of bleach, and pink roots were visible in his otherwise white hair.

"Pajamas, Ren?" Tamaki's stray hair wagged at him pointedly. "It takes me longer to get ready in the morning, and I'm still at least wearing real clothes."

Rentarou slumped forward in his seat. "Too sleepy. Don't wanna."

"Well, if you don't want to put on your own clothes..." Keiichi put down his book and smiled mischievously. "We could play _that game_ again."

The younger boy jerked upright. "You wouldn't!"

"Why shouldn't we?" Tamaki slipped behind Rentarou's seat and nonchalantly leaned on the back of his chair. "We're talking about treasured family memories, after all. There's no reason we shouldn't make more of them... right?"

Their mother glanced up from the pot of soup. "Keiichi, Tamaki, stop teasing your brother. Go get dressed, Renarou."

"Yes, mother." "Yes, mother." "Yes, mother."

Once Rentarou was safely out of sight, Tamaki allowed herself to yawn. "Why do we have to be up so early, anyhow? It's not like we have school. We could sleep in. You could sleep in too, Mom!"

The pink-haired woman took a sip from her ladle, then waved it threateningly in her direction. "I let the two of you sleep until eight, didn't I? Just because it's Golden Week is no reason to waste a beautiful day laying in bed. Not for me, and not for anyone else in this house!"

"But we can't even go on vacation! Dad's always too busy with work this time of year!"

"The spirit of a vacation is in what you do, not where you go." Her mother finished stirring the soup and nodded to herself. "Now help set the table."

"But setting the table isn't in the spirit of a vacation either..." Tamaki grumbled, but went and laid out the dishes anyway, while her mother carefully measured out portions of fish and soup for the family.

Tamaki's phone rang, and she slipped into another room to answer it.

"Mom, Shima and Koishi want to know if I can go help out at the inn!"

"That's fine," her mother shouted back. "You're free to go as soon as you finish your breakfast."

* * *

A short while later, Tamaki heard a voice call her name while she was crossing a bridge over the river. She turned to see Hirouin Himeka running toward her and waving. The green-haired girl was wearing a white sundress and a wide-brimmed hat.

"Oh, Shima invited you over too?"

Himeka nodded. "She said the inn suddenly got really busy. I don't know if I'll be much use, but..."

Tamaki smiled. "But what are friends for, right?"

"I guess so? Grandpa was going to teach me some things today, but when I told him about this he said it could wait."

"You sound disappointed."

"It was going to be a surprise for Yui. She's been so nice to me, and I wanted to do something nice for her."

"I'm sure she'll love it even if she has to wait a bit." Tamaki paused. "Come to think of it, I haven't seen Yui at all since school let out last week."

"Her whole family's on vacation in another prefecture." Himeka sighed. "At least this way I know she won't get into trouble chasing after Pretty Cure."

* * *

Standing near the entrance of a bakery in another town, the brunette sneezed. Nearby, her sister slid a handful of coins across the counter to a cheerful girl with orange hair, who slipped a couple of pastries into a bag and handed them over. Miu then rejoined her sister and handed her one of the items, which Yui eagerly bit into.

The two girls walked out of the store, passed a blue haired girl who was intently sketching a rather large cat near the door, then sat down at one of the tables outside.

"And what do you have to say to me, who found out about the shop with the legendary choco coronets and even bought one for you?" Miu prodded Yui with her finger.

Yui swallowed her second bite. "Thanks, sis."

"Am I your favorite big sister?"

"You're my only big sister!" Yui stuck her tongue out, then took another bite of the pastry.

Miu sighed. "And now comes the part where you blow me off to go on a magical girl hunt."

Yui swallowed again, then shook her head. "Like Pretty Cure would hop on a train, ride three hours, and coincidentally pick the same town as us to vacation in. That's too farfetched even for me."

Miu glanced at her little sister skeptically. "That sounds entirely too rational for how you've been lately. Are you taking a vacation from your delusions of grandeur as well?"

"What? Sis, I resent the implication!" Yui rubbed her hands together. "I'm just prioritizing the delusions I can actually follow up on right now, like finding some souvenirs that I can pass off as pirate swag for the Astronomy Club. And after that, sightseeing and cryptid hunting!"

Miu grinned and wrapped her arm around Yui's shoulders. "Now that's my crazy little sister! Let's go do some of that!"

* * *

Within the white stone castle that stood under the yellow sky, the figure of a man with the head and hooves of a horse floated horizontally in the air. As he floated, he thought. As he thought, he fretted. As he fretted, he tilted. As he hovered inverted in the air, he tore at the raging froth that made up his mane, and raged at the injustice of the world.

"Perhaps this is not a good time. If that is the case, perhaps the Great Amazonya should be told that Honorable Centurion was indisposed."

Taeyn opened his eyes wide, and looked to the figure on the ground, which looked like nothing so much as a giant head with long slender limbs attached directly to it. Its eyes stared back, lidless and impassive.

"You know nothing of my travails, Pira Clan. Not one whit. Not one iota. You are not qualified to judge me."

"Pira Harbinger is tasked with the carrying of messages. The standing in judgment is a task reserved for others."

Taeyn snorted. "I haven't the patience for sophistry. Why are you here?"

"The time draws near when the Great Amazonya will act. It is the will of the Great Amazonya that Honorable Centurion should share what is to be known about the ones called Pretty Cure."

Taeyn flipped himself upright, then dropped to the floor in front of the hooded monster. "Am I your spy? Does your master propose that I should be his servant?! I say thee neigh!" He turned aside and coughed. "Ahem. Nay! As the seneschal of this palace, I bend knee only to my Queen! If your master wishes to learn the secrets of the Field of Rains, he can pry them himself from the maw of madness himself!"

"Harbinger hears and shall report it so." The creature bowed deeply, then disappeared in a puff of white steam.

After waiting a few moments to make sure he was alone, Taeyn allowed his posture to slump and returned to hovering in the air.

"I think... it is time I took a sabbatical."

* * *

When Tamaki and Himeka arrived at Nanohanasou, Shima was out front waiting for them, already dressed in a kimono. She led them in through a side entrance while apologizing.

"I'm sorry to ask this sort of thing of you two, when I'm sure there are other things you'd rather be doing with your vacation... Even I wasn't originally going to be working, but we actually are really shorthanded today. Don't worry too much about the details. Koishi and I will be around to help and show you what to do, and it's honestly a big help that you're here- Himeka, are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" Himeka protested, though she kept her fingers pressed against her temples. "Just a small headache. I'll be okay."

A loud clatter sounded from a doorway a short distance up the hall, followed immediately by a series of curses. Shima poked her head into the kitchen as they passed, then drew back and shuddered.

"So glad I'm not preparing food today..." She turned back to her two friends, who were now looking much more nervous. "Seriously, our part is easy. We just have to carry food from the kitchen to other rooms, and then carry the dirty dishes back. Even if today turns into a complete disaster, it's not anybody's fault and you don't need to feel bad about it."

"That's all?" Tamaki's stray hair wavered inquisitively. "But I thought you needed a lot of help?"

"Well, we do. But it's better for everyone if we just do something simple and easy to understand."

Further down the hallway, beyond the staff dining room, Shima led them into a room that turned out to be a cluttered office with nobody else inside. A moment later, Koishi entered the room as well, followed by the madame manager, who acknowledged Tamaki and Himeka with a curt nod.

"You must be the friends that my granddaughters invited. Of course, young Tamaki has been here a few times for other reasons. And the other young lady?"

Himeka bowed deeply. "H- Hirouin Himeka! Pleased to meet you!"

Another nod. "Very well. Now, while I appreciate your coming here to assist us, it is necessary to make certain things clear. You are not here today for social reasons, so today I will not be treating you as guests. I expect earnest work, and will compensate you with appropriate pay. Do either of you have any experience with this type of work?"

The two girls shook their heads.

"We don't have time to properly train you, so instead each of you are to pair up with one of my granddaughters and defer to her in all things. You may already be aware that we intend to have you setting dishes and carrying food. Anything more complicated should be left in the hands of our more experienced staff members. Furthermore, our customer in room 101 is not to be disturbed for any reason."

"I thought that room wasn't booked for today."

"You need not concern yourself with that, Koishi. Your father and I have the matter well in hand."

"Fine." The violet-haired girl scowled and turned to leave. "Himeka, you're with me."

Shima looked like she was about to say something, then thought the better of it. "Come on, Tamaki. Let's go get you changed."

* * *

In the small bedroom shared by Shima and Koishi, Tamaki posed in the mirror and admired her reflection. The work uniform had consisted of a simple lavender kimono with an apron, plain white socks, and sandals. Her long, black hair had been gathered up in a ball and fixed in place with a couple of long pins.

"Oh, I like this! I don't look at all as silly as I thought I would!"

"I think you look nice-tun! Elegant and professional-tun!"

"But the inside is still 100% Tamaki-ton."

Tamaki looked at Ton and stuck out her tongue. "You're just jealous because you have to stay in here all day. This is great! It really looks like I'm about to get my hands dirty!"

"You actually are about to get your hands dirty, Tamaki." Shima covered her mouth craftily and giggled. "What we're about to do is enough to challenge even your stamina. Don't underestimate waitressing!"

Tamaki spun in place, then stopped and pointed theatrically at Shima's reflection. "Then I'll accept your challenge! Having come this far, there's no way we won't make it all the way! That's a Suou Tamaki guarantee!"

"Speaking of the Tamaki-chan guarantee..." Shima's expression turned serious. "Please don't do that in front of the guests or the other staff. All we need to do today is deliver the food and bring back the dishes. But if you go off making wacky promises as even a temporary worker, someone might decide to hold you to them."

Tamaki looked like she was about to protest, but then nodded instead. "Okay. Lead the way, Captain!"

"And don't call me that."

"Yes, Cap- Ehe... Sorry, Shima-chan."

* * *

The remainder of the morning faded away under a steady stream of exertion. At the direction of the kitchen staff, the two girls carried dishes loaded with food and tubs loaded with dishes across the length and breadth of the inn, only occasionally crossing paths with the other pair.

After several hours of such toil, they were eventually sent to the staff dining room for lunch. Taking a couple of sandwiches from a large tray that had been left in the room, they sat down and began to eat.

"Sorry again about dragging you into this."

"Hm?" Tamaki looked up from her sandwich and swallowed before responding. "Don't be. It's actually kind of fun, and everyone's been really nice."

Shima nodded thoughtfully. "You have been getting a lot of compliments, haven't you? You'd better watch out, though. If enough of our guests ask grandmother about 'that pretty young waitress', she might try to hire you for real!"

"Ahaha... Maybe I'd do it? It's nice to be appreciated like that."

"I'm actually a little jealous. I only do this when the inn is really busy, but I'd still like to be complimented once in a while. Maybe I should get contacts or something..."

"Contacts, huh? Even having seen you as Cure Surf, I have a hard time imagining it. I mean, I can visualize you dying your hair blonde, or with that cute light blue lip gloss and those anchor-shaped earrings... But you without glasses just blows my mind."

"There you go again. What is it with you and glasses?"

Tamaki shrugged, and took another bite of her sandwich. The pair finished their lunches quietly, before Tamaki spoke up again. "I wonder how Himeka is doing?"

"She's probably doing fine. She's pretty good about thinking things through, and Koishi knows how to do this job much better than I do."

* * *

Elsewhere in the Nanohanasou, a girl with pale green ringlet hair trailed behind another girl with long purple braids and half-moon glasses, each carrying a tray of delectable dishes. Although they were both wearing the same type of kimono and aprons, anyone seeing her purposeful bearing and stern expression would instantly understand that the purple-haired girl was the leader. Her follower just as plainly lacked the other girl's confidence and intensity, and kept nervously glancing aside.

"Um... Young Mistress?"

"Koishi."

"Miss President?"

"Koishi."

"Koishi...-san?"

"What is it, Himeka?"

"Didn't you say these refreshments were for Room 101? Your grandmother... the madame manager, I mean... didn't she say that we weren't to bother the guest in that room? For any reason at all?"

Koishi nodded slightly, while keeping her gaze on the hallway ahead. "Doesn't that make you curious at all? For grandmother to keep me away from something like this isn't right. I'm directly in line to inherit the business, so if anything, I have a duty to learn how to handle this sort of thing."

"Maybe it's because we're kids? I mean, your tray is mostly alcohol, and-"

"I've served alcohol before. It's not a problem so long as I don't drink any, and I don't intend to. There's no reason we shouldn't handle this."

"But still..."

"Hush. The guests will get a bad impression if they hear us arguing, and the room is right here."

The door leading into the room was elegantly framed wood with paper windows. The light from the inside cast a shadow that looked something like the head of a horse, but that was almost certainly an illusion.

Koishi opened the door.

"Honored guest, we have the refreshments you requested..."

* * *

Back in Shima's room, the two fairies busied themselves as best they could without drawing attention to themselves. A small radio had been taken out and turned on, mainly so there would be a plausible explanation if someone heard them talking, but Tun had a book set out on the desk and was turning pages to read along as the program progressed. Ton, on the other hand, had decided to lie down on the windowsill, and looked close to falling asleep.

"What's the big deal about that play-ton? We could be listening to music-ton!"

"It's a classic story of shipwrecked wanderers finding love-tun!" The white and blue fairy put her hands to her cheeks and swayed happily. "It's got a prince, and a bad wizard, and the prince falls in love with the wizard's daughter-tun. They get married, and the wizard gives up being bad, and even the spirits he enslaved go free and live happily afterwards-tun!"

"Sounds boring-ton."

"Caliban is a little like you, Ton-sama."

"He's a mighty warrior-ton?"

"Not really-tun."

"Then he's not like me-ton." Having lost interest in the topic, Ton turned to look out the window.

"Do you think Tamaki's going to be okay-tun? Shima's talked about helping out before, and it sounded really hard-tun."

"If it's just a matter of spunk and endurance, that girl's invincible-ton. Though she's not as cool as me-ton. But I think she'll probably go overboard sooner or later-ton."

"Ton-sama... I know how you feel, but you're really not one to talk-tun. I wish I could help out too-tun."

The red-white fairy shrugged, a gesture that incorporated most of his body. "I just wish something exciting would happen-ton."

A crash echoed up from below, prompting Ton to shift positions so he could properly see the source. It turned out to be a girl with powder blue hair and a white dress, who was sprinting towards the forest behind the inn. A moment later, her pursuer came into view, a man with the head and hooves of a horse.

"Now that's what I'm- wait, this is a serious emergency-ton! Forget about that play, Tun! I'll slow him down while you find the legendary warriors-ton!" Then he jumped out the window and bounced down across the inn's lower roof after the horse-man.

"Oh my-tun."

She stood up and hopped out the window after him.

* * *

Tamaki was following Shima, carrying yet another load of dishes to be washed in the kitchen. As the pair passed by an open window, a bright light from outside caught her attention and Tamaki turned her head to look. There didn't seem to be anything out there, but then-

She walked into Shima, who had stopped moving in front of her. The blue haired girl stumbled forward a few steps, but managed to catch her balance without dropping anything. Tamaki set her tub of dishes on the ground and rushed to Shima's side.

"I'm so sorry about that! Are you okay, Shima?"

"It's okay... I'm fine, just a little surprised. I thought I saw something outside."

"Oh, you saw it too? I wonder what it was?"

Shima set her own burden down and looked out the window, just as the light flashed again. "There it is again. It's... remarkably bright."

"I don't see where it might be coming from... maybe it's reflecting off of something?"

"Maybe..." Shima took off her glasses and started to clean them, then looked out the window with a suspicious frown. "And there it is again."

"You took off... But... Wait, how does that even work?" Tamaki gesticulated wildly, trying to express her puzzlement at the sight before her. "And I thought you couldn't see without your glasses?"

"There's no need to make such a big deal out of it." Shima put her glasses back on and turned to look at Tamaki, suddenly looking fearful. "But I am nearly blind without them. Whatever is making that light must be magic... and it's probably a trap."

The sound of panicked footsteps interrupted their conversation, drawing their attention well before Koishi came around a corner, running as fast as the clothing she was wearing would let her. She gave no indication that she was going to stop, so Tamaki stepped in front of her and casually caught her. Koishi's momentum knocked them both to the floor, but she was protected from the impact by Tamaki's light grip.

"Tamaki? What do you think you're doing?"

"That's my line, Koishi!" Shima hissed at her cousin, red-faced. "You're the last person I'd expect to see running in the hall like that!"

"There's a monster in room 101!" Koishi struggled free of Tamaki and stood to face Shima. "That horse-faced guy who keeps attacking the school is here at Nanohanasou, and he's chasing Himeka... though I guess there's no way you'll believe that."

Tamaki stood up behind them. "He's after Himeka? But she's not even-" She broke off suddenly as Shima's hand covered her mouth.

"I'm sure she'll be fine, Tamaki. My cousin's obviously had a bad shock and isn't thinking clearly, and she's forgotten that there's no such thing as monsters." Shima defiantly looked Koishi in the eyes. "Right, Koishi?"

"Fine, don't believe me." Koishi trembled with anger, and the fear had disappeared from her face. "I'm going to get grandmother. She'll know what to do." Koishi sidestepped the two girls and strode purposefully down the hallway and out of sight.

Shima slumped against the wall. "Okay, I'm done."

"You okay, Shima?"

"I'm fine. But if I keep pretending that I don't believe in Pretty Cure, Koishi is going to rip me a new one."

"A new one? A new what?"

Shima sighed. "Y'know, Tamaki... Never mind."

Tamaki blinked a few times. "What now, Captain?"

"What else? We're going to walk into a trap."

* * *

Once they were outside, the two girls had no trouble following the strange light, largely because it seemed to have a strange property of reflecting off of things that weren't at all reflective. They also didn't have far to go. As soon as they poked their heads around the corner at the back of the inn's storage shed, they saw the source of the light, which was a tiny, heart-shaped wand in the hand of a girl in a sleeveless white dress with elbow length opera gloves. She was thoroughly engaged in deflecting Taeyn's rapidly swinging fists away from her head and body.

Shima quickly ducked back and pulled Tamaki along with her.

"Not that I was looking forward to it or anything," she whispered. "But this doesn't look at all like the trap I was expecting."

"I'm more surprised that Taeyn is actually fighting!" Tamaki whispered back excitedly. "He never tries to do that with us anymore!"

Another flash of the light reflected off of... was that a blade of grass? In any case, it prompted the girls to look around the corner. The girl in white was holding her fists up in a fighting stance, the light flashing sharply from her left hand.

On the far side of the embattled opponents, the two girls noticed Tun sitting on the limb of a nearby tree, who waved and pointed out Ton, who was crouched on the roof of the shed itself. If the soft pink glow emanating from his body was anything to go by, he was just a few moments from doing something incredibly foolish.

Taeyn broke off his attack to shout a question.

"I am not saying you could defeat me, human, but it is clear that you aren't trying to hit me. Why?"

"My light isn't built for striking. I'd look ridiculous if I broke it."

"Never mind her-ton! You're a wicked horse-faced villain and we've got a score to settle-ton!"

Girl and horse looked up to see the little red fairy leap off the shed, dropping toward Taeyn with a spirited battlecry.

"Wha- The club mascot can talk? It can move? What's going on?"

"Forget that pipsqueak! You should worry about yourself!" Taeyn emphasized his statement by grabbing the girl by her forearm and swinging her around so that her body collided with the incoming fairy, who ricocheted into the wall of the storage shed. Then he tossed the girl in the same direction. Her back collided with the wooden deck, snapping one of the planks which whipped sharply upward at the opposite end... where the red and white mascot had just fallen.

He lofted into the air toward Taeyn, still shouting defiance... to which the horse-like man calmly turned his back, then lashed out with a kick that planted his glossy white horseshoe right in the center of Ton's forehead, and sent the fairy sailing into the stratosphere.

"Wow... and he can fly." Dazed and winded from striking the building, it seemed to be all she could do for the moment just to follow Ton's movement with her eyes.

Shima watched him sail into the forest before stepping around the corner. "I wouldn't call it flying."

"More like he gets launched." Tamaki agreed, as she followed Shima into view. Then she turned her attention to the other girl. "Are you okay?"

The girl in white frowned slightly as she picked herself up. "I appreciate your concerns, but this isn't a place for ordinary people. I'll keep him busy, so please run away."

Tamaki stepped closer to the girl and put out her hand to help her up. "You're Misty Brilliant, right? We've wanted to talk to you since we heard the rumors."

The girl in white flinched and shrank back. "Oh no... they actually caught it. Yui said it was a contagious delusion, but I never thought she was serious..." She broke off her monologue to move aside just before Taeyn put his hoof through the wooden boards where she'd been standing. "Do you mind?! This is a serious conversation!"

"A serious conversation-tun? If you want to talk, I'd be glad to listen-tun. Or if you need the legendary warriors-"

The girl in white turned suddenly to look at Tun. "You can talk too? How? Why?"

"I'm not sure how to answer that-tun. I think I'd be very sad if I couldn't-tun."

"Enough of this!" Taeyn leapt into the air and looked down on the girls. "You have far more important concerns at hand!"

"That's right!" The girl struggled to her feet with a worried expression. "You two should get out of here! I may not be as strong as he is, but I can definitely hold out until the legendary warriors arrive!"

Tamaki slipped a hand into her apron pocket and glanced at Shima. Her stray hair stirred nervously. "Well, you've already come this far..."

"It's a Tamaki-chan guarantee, isn't it?" Shima smiled darkly, produced her own phone, and held it up so that her Cure Lodestone could be seen dangling from it. "Go wild. Release all that pent-up energy."

"In that case..." Tamaki flipped her hair back triumphantly with her free hand, while she pulled the phone out of her apron and held it so that her Cure Lodestone dangled next to Shima's. "I'm making it a super happy, lovely, blooming, peach blossom dream Tamaki-chan max heart guarantee!"

"But that's-" Misty Brilliant reeled back as if struck. "Even for a Tamaki-chan guarantee, that's too much!"

"PreCure Cross My Heart!" "PreCure Cross My Heart!"

* * *

The world around the girls vanished, replaced by the now-familiar sea, which glowed softly below them, and the starlit sky above. Two large banners, pink for Tamaki and blue for Shima, each emblazoned with a golden heart crossed underneath by a golden X-mark, formed out of the wind and the sea spray, and wound around their bodies, hiding their clothing and everything below their necks from view.

The banners rippled and reformed, becoming fanciful knee-length dresses in pink and blue, replete with ribbons and frills. Elbow length gloves and tall boots formed around their hands and feet, and leathery black belts and bandoliers, with golden buckles all shaped in the same crossed-heart emblem, wrapped around their waists and crossed their chests.

Tamaki's black hair washed pink and shortened back to the nape of her neck, except for a small handful of strands that wound themselves into thin pink braids and tied together in a bow at the top of her head, secured in place by the tiara that appeared.

At the same time, Shima's glasses vanished and her hair grew longer, washing vibrantly blonde as it reached down to her back and gathered into a ponytail, cinched by a heart-shaped ornament that sprang into being for that purpose.

They reappeared in reality, and posed back to back.

"Flying the flag of the whistling wind, Cure Breeze!"

"Flying the flag of the crashing waves, Cure Surf!"

"Joined together under the jolly roger of love, we will calm your hatred and steal your heart! Setting sail, Cross Heart Pretty Cure!"

* * *

When the flow of time returned to normal, Misty Brilliant fell to her knees in shock.

"The Captain and Tamaki are Pretty Cure..."

"That's right!" Cure Breeze nodded cheerfully. "We were the legendary warriors all along since six weeks ago!"

Cure Surf briefly massaged her temples. "Breeze, saying it like that is just going to confuse her more."

"It's okay." The girl in white carefully pulled herself to her feet. "For me, 'all along' is about three weeks."

"Haven't you fools forgotten something?" The horse-man shouted from up above. "I, Taeyn, will not be ignored!"

Cure Breeze turned her attention to the floating man. "Why were you picking on Misty Brilliant, anyway? She doesn't even have a Cure Lodestone!" She paused, and looked back at Misty. "Do you?"

The girl in question shook her head.

Taeyn snorted indignantly. "Puny humans! My recreation is- Ahem. Don't think I'll be distracted by your petty questions! Let's go, Kiraina!"

As he had several times before, Taeyn produced a grinning black disc and tossed it before him. This one struck a shovel that was leaning against the shed, which grew to several times its original size and sprouted long, thin arms and legs. A mouth full of large, sharp teeth appeared on the blade of the shovel, and the new monster howled its ire.

"Kiraina!"

The monster started to walk towards the three girls, waving its arms threateningly. Cure Breeze charged, dashing straight up to the creature and punching it right in the face. Aside from sounding like a huge gong, this seemed to have no particular effect. The monster punched at her with its long arms, and Breeze was forced to back-flip out of the way.

"Kirainaa!"

"Not like that, Kiraina! You need to use flashy moves to hurt them!"

"Kiraina?"

"Don't just stand there punching at them! Go all out and hold nothing back!"

"Kiraina!" The monster hopped up in the air and bent its legs so that its face hit the ground instead. Being the blade of the shovel, it sank into the earth, and with a heave of its limbs, the monster suddenly launched a spray of dirt and rocks at the heroines. Then it spun its body like a drill and vanished into the ground.

"Hey, no fair hiding underground!" Breeze's stray hair wavered angrily.

"You've got no right to complain about fairness, Pretty Cure! I should have had the upper hand since long ago!"

The ground began to shake. Cure Surf and Misty Brilliant leapt into the air.

"Breeze, watch your feet!"

Before Breeze could react to the warning, the ground beneath her feet erupted upward, driven by the spinning blade of the monstrous shovel, and she was knocked high into the air. As the pink-haired girl's ascent slowed and she began to fall, she recovered her bearings and looked down at the grinning monster below. It was sure to attack her, but she flashed a challenging smile downward, determined not to be caught off guard.

Cure Surf's voice carried into the air. "Look out!"

Looking around quickly, Breeze saw Taeyn flying towards her. She had completely forgotten about him. But instead of catching Breeze with a surprise attack, Taeyn was clocked in the head by a glossy white boomerang, which knocked him away at an angle. He tumbled end over end as he flew through the air in the wrong direction, while the boomerang curved back to be caught in Misty's white-gloved hand.

Breeze laughed and turned her attention back to the Kiraina, which was now close enough to reach her from the ground. She spun in the air, slapping its away hands as it tried to grab her, then twisted into kick as she fell close to it's face. The monster faltered slightly, recovering while Breeze fell lightly to the ground and landed on her feet. She brought her fists back up, but it responded by diving back underground. Breeze held up her arms to shield her face from the resultant wave of flying soil.

"Keep it up, Kiraina!" Taeyn shouted, having regained control of his flight. "Bigger and badder, more aggressive! Destroy anything and everything, so long as you defeat Pretty Cure!"

The three girls ran to regroup, and stood back to back to back. Misty Brilliant held up her boomerang, and Cure Surf brandished a large limb that she'd torn off a tree, while Cure Breeze stood ready with only her fists. Tun dangled from Cure Surf's bandolier, having grabbed hold of it sometime during the battle.

The ground rumbled again, deeper and louder than it had before, and the three girls scattered in different directions. Contrary to their expectations, however, the monster burst up through the floor of the shed. The building shattered with the force of the impact, driving a shower of lumber and tools towards each of the girls.

The girls defended themselves vigorously. Cure Surf spun her tree limb above her head to knock away the falling debris, except for a large wooden beam that she was forced to dodge. Misty Brilliant danced and swayed around the lesser shrapnel while knocking a few larger objects away with her boomerang. As for Cure Breeze, she raced away from the former storage shed at top speed while a shower of nails and progressively larger sharp objects thudded into the ground in her wake.

As the last of the wreckage hit the ground, Cure Breeze continued to run, curving back around toward the Kiraina. The monster leapt over the remaining portion of the destroyed shed and stalked slowly toward Cure Surf, who tossed her tree branch aside and took up the wooden beam that had embedded itself in the ground next to her. Misty wound up to throw her boomerang, but it was slapped out of her hands as Taeyn dropped out of the sky from the direction of the sun. She was forced to give ground as he pressed his attack with a flurry of furious punches.

"KIRAINA!" The sharp-toothed shovel lumbered towards Shima entirely without subtlety. She responded by spinning the beam in her hands, striking its clumsy hands away from a distance of several meters.

"I've had just about enough of this!" She shouted, shifting her grip to the end of the long beam and spinning it in a slow revolution parallel to the ground. "Let's finish this, Breeze!"

"Okay!" Breeze poured on the speed, charging towards the Kiraina so fast that a cloud of dust billowed into the air behind her. In fact, so fast that she overtook the leading end of Surf's giant weapon. She jumped in front of it, then braced against it as it swung and kicked off straight at the monster. Breeze grabbed the monstrous shovel by the end of the handle and held fast as her momentum tipped it backwards. She kept her grip as she hit the ground, then spun it around in the same direction as her friend's wooden beam, with just the right timing that the beam struck the monster full in the face as Cure Surf brought it around again.

This time, the sound was more like a bell than a gong, and the Kiraina dropped to the ground, senseless. The two pair ran towards each other, and linked hands. Breeze began their ritual, calling out the words as glowing pink energy gathered into her left hand.

"The energetic love of the whistling wind! Breeze Color Charge!"

Cure Surf held out her right hand, and glowing blue energy gathered into her palm as she shouted her part of the spell.

"The reliable love of the crashing waves! Surf Color Charge!"

Much as they had several times now, the two brought their hands together into a heart shape and unleashed their power.

"PreCure Colorful Heart Cross!"

The energy mixed into a much larger heart swirling their two colors, which expanded into a great pink heart with a blue cross mark that opened and engulfed the giant shovel. "Ki- kiraina?" It stammered dazedly, then started to glow a soft white color. Its maw closed briefly, then broke into an honest smile.

"Aye-Aye-Ai!"

Then it popped, its excess mass dissipating like foam. The original shovel clattered to the ground, alongside a white disc marked with the image of a trowel.

Seeing that his minion was defeated, Taeyn ceased his attack against Misty and leapt into the air. His nostrils flared, his watery mane churned violently, and he bellowed with wordless rage... but this subsided, and he sank into his portal without further comment. The battlefield rippled, holes and shrapnel and even the entirely wrecked shed returning to how it had all been before.

Surf picked up the disc. "We really need to find out what these things are for."

Breeze shrugged. "Maybe they're not for anything? What do you think, Misty?"

"I'm not really sure... but before that..." She nervously pointed back towards the inn, where the madame manager and Ranichirou could be seen, the latter carrying a long, thin bundle that was longer than his considerable height. "Shouldn't we leave?"

The two Cures quickly agreed, and together the three jumped high into the air and out of sight.

* * *

After the girls had gone, Ranichirou carefully set one end of his parcel on the ground, flexed his arms carefully, then set one hand against the object to keep it balanced. With his free hand, he scratched his bald head confusedly.

"**How very strange... Young girls fighting monsters, and everything back just as it ought to be. Even having seen it, I'm not sure that I should believe it.**"

The madame manager calmly took a sip from a small cup of sake. "It is not so outlandish that we cannot be thankful for it. Whoever they are, those girls have resolved something troublesome for us."

"**Ah, so they have. Although... it certainly is nostalgic getting this thing out again. Why, just lifting it reminds me of why I trained my muscles to become so magnificent!**"

"Perhaps we should have left it in storage. If they had found it there, those girls might have been able to make better use of it."

"**Hm... I suppose you may be correct. That blonde girl did seem rather proficient, and it has been a while since I've had the honor of watching you practice. Why, I don't think you've asked for this thing since... Ah, when was it, I wonder?**"

The old woman's expression soured. "That's hardly relevant, Ranichirou. Still... it may be prudent to keep it closer at hand for the near future. Find a place for it in the office."

"**As you wish, Mother.**" He bowed deeply, then turned and shouldered the parcel once more.

"Also..." She paused, and took another sip from her cup. "See that Room 101 is kept ready, in case that gentleman returns. I won't have it suggested that Nanohanasou turned out a paying customer."

* * *

The three magical girls made their way to an isolated corner of the main building. After making sure that nobody was around to see, Cure Breeze and Cure Surf quickly reverted to their natural forms, followed shortly afterward by Misty Brilliant, whose fancy white dress and powder blue ringlets were replaced by the ordinary clothing and pale green curls of Hirouin Himeka.

"Himeka, you're a magical girl too? I'm shocked! Tamaki-chan is totally shocked!"

"Knock that off, Tamaki." Shima smacked her upside the head. "I'm sure she was hiding it for the same reason we do."

"Ahaha... okay, I get that." Tamaki rubbed her head where Shima had hit her. "But it's still a big surprise that the mysterious magical girl we've been hearing about would be someone we already know. And Himeka, I never would have guessed!"

"Tamaki!" Shima facepalmed. "Nearly everything that Misty Brilliant said before we transformed were things that only Himeka would have said!"

"Really? Ahaha... I didn't notice that at all!"

Himeka suddenly started giggling. As the other two girls turned to look, she wiped a tear from her eyes and started to explain. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be laughing. I was so worried something was going to change now, but you're both exactly the same!"

"Of course we are!" Tamaki laughed. "Why wouldn't we be?"

"We should talk more about this later, but right now we should get back inside." Shima adjusted her glasses. "My cousin's probably worried sick."

* * *

They nearly collided with Koishi on their way back inside, and the purple-haired girl immediately swept Himeka up in a tearful hug.

"Himeka, you're okay! But I saw- That monster was chasing you! What happened?"

Shima answered. "Pretty Cure chased him off."

"PreCure and monsters... you're admitting they exist now?" Koishi's jaw dropped. "But you were being so pigheaded about it last time we talked!"

"Ahaha..." Tamaki laughed nervously. "It can't be that big a deal, right? I mean, if Shima can take off her glasses, she can believe in Pretty Cure!"

"That's the worst analogy I've ever heard." Shima glared at Tamaki angrily.

"Sorry, sorry." Tamaki's stomach rumbled. "I'm hungry. When's dinner?"

Himeka blinked. "Isn't serving dinner our job tonight?"

"Argh!" The purple-haired girl struck her palm to her forehead. "How can I call myself the heir-in-training if I forgot something like that?! Okay, girls, conversation over! It's time to bust our tails!"

"Okay!" The other three girls chorused, then followed her back into the inn.

* * *

The stars shone down like grains of sugar in a night sky the color of cinnamon. Two moons, white and full, drifted across the sky and illuminated the Field of Rivers below. Even in the relative cool, the rivers still frothed and boiled, while the Island Palace protruded from the sand like a tomb.

Taeyn strode across the sand toward the palace gates, thinking back on the battle that had just ended. The power that had penetrated the Field of Rivers up to the headwaters, which he had made his own. The power to summon and command Kiraina, but no matter what was summoned or what commands he gave, the result was always the same. He paused, his hooves sinking into the sand, and felt around in his pocket with one hand. Four... no, five of his black discs remained, but the idea of using them was suddenly distasteful.

"This... is not right. My power should be greater! Why should I even think of using such unreliable minions?"

He clenched his fists. The answer came to mind instantly, his recollections of creature after creature whose bodies had dissolved like sea foam when Pretty Cure had finished them off. He wanted to believe that he was made of stronger stuff, but...

But he was stronger, of that there was no doubt. That girl... she wasn't one of the legendary warriors. She was no match for his strength, and he need not fear being rent asunder by any power she might possess. The place where her boomerang had struck him didn't even sting, but... For the first time in a while, he'd fought with his own strength. And fighting her- no, it was because he fought at all...

It was invigorating! Why shouldn't he take the risk? To fight Pretty Cure that way, with his own two hands?

He shook his head. No... he would have to become stronger first. And looking up at the silent walls of the deserted Island Palace, he knew that remaining there would do nothing to make that happen.

"For what reason does Honorable Centurion hesitate?"

"You again?" Taeyn turned around to see the masked face of Pira Harbinger.

"One is given the nature of being oneself. Such is the wisdom of the Great Amazonya."

"Stow it. I dislike tautologies. I also dislike your master, and I loathe you."

The creature's expression shifted under the mask, drawing it momentarily taut over the outlines of long, sharp teeth. "Does Honorable Centurion wish to fight? Harbinger will not lose."

Taeyn dismissed the question with a gesture. "That was my honest opinion. My wish is to make that understood now, since I won't be back for a while." He turned his back on both the castle and the monster, and began to walk away.

"Honorable Centurion will leave the castle unguarded? Forsake seneschal duties?"

Taeyn turned his head and glanced back at the harbinger. "From whom does it need protection, Pira Clan? What, in this poisoned and barren world, could possibly topple the castle of my liege? You Pira Clan, perhaps, but your master should understand that such an act would have consequences."

"Nothing is beyond the understanding of the Great Amazonya."

"Then you have no cause for concern." Taeyn returned to looking ahead of him and stalked off, leaving a trail of hoofprints in the sand behind him.

* * *

Far from the castle, along another bank of the great rivers, a slab of white marble glistened in the moonlight. At the center of the slab, a stone staircase descended into the ground. Inside, water trickled down the walls, seeping from gaps between the stones and running down the stairs. Even filtered through the earth, the water remained warm, and wisps of steam wafted up from the chamber beneath.

Braziers filled with blue-white fire lit the room, where a multitude of gangly, masked creatures stood in ranks along the walls. Each possessed the same general build as Pira Harbinger, who knelt at the rim of a glistening pool in the center of the floor.

At the other side of the pool loomed a figure in a white robe lined at the collar and the hem with turbulent whitewater. Except for his clawed, scaly hands, long sleeves concealed his arms. Like the other creatures in the room, his head was larger than his limbs, and essentially served as his body, but instead of a cloth hood and mask, he instead wore a garish yellow headdress decorated with feathers and broad green leaves. His mask was made of olive-colored wood, carved and painted to look like the head and bill of a hawk... but where the bird's lower jaw would be, his jowl stuck out instead, scaly, jaundiced, and filled with dagger-like teeth.

Contrary to his appearance, and the gravelly murmurs of his subordinates, his voice was a smooth, sonorous tenor. "So... that is the destiny the seneschal has chosen for himself. Did he say anything else?"

"Nothing remains to speak of, Great Amazonya."

"Then you have served me well, Pira Harbinger. Return to your place and await my order."

The harbinger bowed and stepped back from the pool, melding into the ranks of the other hooded creatures. Reaching into his sleeves, Amazonya drew out a handful of sand and cast it into the pool, which stirred and bubbled before him.

"The scent of the human is the scent of the prize. The passion that quickens her pulse, the passion that warms her blood, is that which beckons to the accursed treasures of darkness! Come forth, Pira Mirror, and receive the scent of a passionate warrior!"

A hooded figured stepped out from the ranks, distinguishable from the others only by a small, octagonal mirror affixed to the side of its temple. It moved to the rim of the pool, leaned forward, and inhaled deeply.

"The scent of the human fills my lungs! Great Amazonya, is this the scent that must be followed?"

Amazonya nodded. "That is the scent that will lead you to the Cure Lodestones and the legendary warriors. You will find them and learn their strengths. You will challenge them and learn their weaknesses. That is my command! Now go, Pira Mirror, and bring honor to the Pira Clan!"

"Yes, Great Amazonya!" The hooded figure stepped back from the edge of the pool and crossed its arms in a solemn salute. Then it vanished in a cloud of white steam.

* * *

"Next time!"

"I can't help feeling like our previews are getting completely disconnected from the actual plot. Is it just me?"

"Tamaki, what are you talking about?"

"Well, normally when we mention something in the preview, it's supposed to show up in the next episode, right? I forget exactly what we were talking about last time, but I get the feeling it never came up."

"Maybe it just didn't happen? And how would we know what's supposed to happen next anyway?"

"Next time, X-Heart PreCure: Who's the imposter? The fake Pretty Cure!"

"Wait, what? Putting aside how you came up with that, isn't that a bit cliche?"

"That's just the way it works. We talk a bit, I say the episode title, and- Oh! Last time, you called out the title! You did that to distract me, didn't you?"

"That doesn't sound like something I'd do. Are you sure it wasn't a dream?"

"Why would I dream about something like that? Even for a TV show, isn't that a bit out there?"

"We're not on TV, though. So the next episode would have to be the first."

"The first? Well, we are starting a new story arc... I'd better think of a theme song!"

"No! We are not going through that again!"

* * *

_X-Heart PreCure will resume January 1, 2015. PreCure, Cross My Heart!_


End file.
